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HPLovecraft · 08-15-2012, 11:17 AM

Here's a really cool article if you're interested in particle physics, history, or religion.

http://phys.org/news201795438.html

(the paper itself) http://arxiv.org/pdf/1207.5783v1.pdf

Roughly speaking, isotopes are radioactive and decay over time (emit particles of their own) and eventually turn into something else. This generally happens quickly, but some isotopes, like uranium, take a very, very long time, and these are used in radiodating processes to determine the age of certain things (certain uranium isotopes decay into certain lead isotopes, and depending on how far along this process is, a rough age can be determined).

Up to now, radioactive decay was always taken to be a constant. It didn't change. But now they've found it does change, and the rate of change is determined by the sun! Not only that, but it depends on the seasons, too.

They talk about this being able to help predict solar flares, but there's something else that may result from this new finding: the Young Earth Creationists will latch onto it like a pitbull on a leg bone. If the constancy of radiocarbon dating is in question, perhaps all instances of its use to date things (like the Earth) can now be called into question. Perhaps the Earth is much, much, much younger than scientists currently believe!

If you look at the paper, however, you will see the decay rate changes rise and fall over monthly periods as the sun rotates, and the overall decay rate change is <1%. So, unfortunately for the Young Earth Creationists, this finding means the Earth could just as easily be older than currently thought by scientists as easily as it could be younger, but it would still not make much of a difference, as a 1% change would not be close to enough to go from a n Earth that is over 4 billion years olf to one barely 5,000 years old.

08-15-2012, 11:17 AM	#1595
HPLovecraft Took an arrow to the knee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Toronto Exp:	Here's a really cool article if you're interested in particle physics, history, or religion. http://phys.org/news201795438.html (the paper itself) http://arxiv.org/pdf/1207.5783v1.pdf Roughly speaking, isotopes are radioactive and decay over time (emit particles of their own) and eventually turn into something else. This generally happens quickly, but some isotopes, like uranium, take a very, very long time, and these are used in radiodating processes to determine the age of certain things (certain uranium isotopes decay into certain lead isotopes, and depending on how far along this process is, a rough age can be determined). Up to now, radioactive decay was always taken to be a constant. It didn't change. But now they've found it does change, and the rate of change is determined by the sun! Not only that, but it depends on the seasons, too. They talk about this being able to help predict solar flares, but there's something else that may result from this new finding: the Young Earth Creationists will latch onto it like a pitbull on a leg bone. If the constancy of radiocarbon dating is in question, perhaps all instances of its use to date things (like the Earth) can now be called into question. Perhaps the Earth is much, much, much younger than scientists currently believe! If you look at the paper, however, you will see the decay rate changes rise and fall over monthly periods as the sun rotates, and the overall decay rate change is <1%. So, unfortunately for the Young Earth Creationists, this finding means the Earth could just as easily be older than currently thought by scientists as easily as it could be younger, but it would still not make much of a difference, as a 1% change would not be close to enough to go from a n Earth that is over 4 billion years olf to one barely 5,000 years old. __________________ "An adherent of homeopathy has no brain. They have skull water with the memory of a brain."