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What is radiocarbondating?

Radiocarbon dating is a process for determining the age of a prehistoric object by measuring its radiocarbon content. The technique was developed by an American chemist, Willard F. Libby (1908-1980), in the late 1940s. Radiocarbon dating involves the analysis of a radioactive carbon isotope, carbon 14 (also called radiocarbon), which is produced in small amounts continuously in the atmosphere by cosmic rays (invisible, high-energy particles that bombard Earth from space). Radiocarbon, like normal carbon, becomes absorbed into green plants through photosynthesis and into animals when they eat the green plants.

After an animal or plant dies, it no longer absorbs radiocarbon and the radiocarbon present in the organism begins to decay (break down by releasing atomic particles) at an exact and uniform rate. Its half-life (the time it takes a sample to lose half its radioactivity) of 5,730 years makes...

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1. Terms And Classification
   1. What is the origin of the field of biology?
   2. How are animals and plants classified into groups and who began trie practice?
   3. What are the five kingdoms presently used to categorize living things?
   4. How many different organisms have been identified by biologists?
2. Evolution
   1. Which biological events occurred during the geologic time divisions?
   2. What is radiocarbondating?
   3. What is the significance of On the Origin of Species?
   4. How did humans evolve?
   5. When was the Scopes (monkey) trial?
   6. What is Batesian mimicry?
   7. What is a biological clock?
3. Genetics
   1. Who is generally known as the founder of genetics?
   2. What is the difference between DNA and RNA?
   3. What are the stages in the type of cell division called mitosis?
   4. What is genetic engineering?
   5. What organism has the largest number of chromosomes?
   6. Can human beings be cloned?
   7. Do all cells have a nucleus?
   8. What is DNA fingerprinting?
   9. How much DNA is in a typical human cell?
4. Bacteria, Viruses, And Fungi
   1. Who were the founders of modern bacteriology?
   2. Are there stone-eating bacteria?
   3. What is a virus and how does a vaccination work?
   4. What is the scientific study of fungi called?
   5. What is a lichen?