Which University of Chicago scientist was the first person to get the age of the Earth about radioactive decay methods?
Clair Cameron Patterson
| Clair C. Patterson | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Grinnell College University of Iowa University of Chicago |
| Known for | Uranium–lead dating, age of the Earth, lead contamination |
| Spouse(s) | Lorna “Laurie” Patterson ( m. 1944) |
| Children | 4 (Susan, Claire, Charles, Cameron) |
What was Clair Patterson’s first big discovery?
Caltech geochemist Clair Patterson (1922–1995) helped galvanize the environmental movement 50 years ago when he announced that highly toxic lead could be found essentially everywhere on Earth, including in our own bodies—and that very little of it was due to natural causes.
How did Clair Patterson determine the age of the Earth?
Dr. Patterson isolated lead from fragments of a meteorite that had struck Earth thousands of years ago, and determined the age of the fragments by analyzing proportions of the lead isotopes. The meteorite is assumed to have been formed at the same time as the rest of the solar system, including Earth.
What did Claire Patterson do?
Clair Patterson was an energetic, innovative, determined scientist whose pioneering work stretched across an unusual number of sub-disciplines, including archeology, meteorology, oceanography, and environmental science—besides chemistry and geology. He is best known for his determination of the age of the Earth.
What is the top age that you can use with carbon-14 dating?
The carbon-14 method was developed by the American physicist Willard F. Libby about 1946. It has proved to be a versatile technique of dating fossils and archaeological specimens from 500 to 50,000 years old.
Who discovered Earth’s age?
In 1913, geologist Arthur Holmes published “the Age of the Earth,” the first major effort to date the planet using radiometric dating. “It is perhaps a little indelicate to ask of our Mother Earth her age,” he wrote in his introduction — then proceeded to reveal that she was roughly 1.6 billion years old.
How long to Patterson fight the lead industry before it was ban in consumer products?
Patterson continued to fight the lead industry for twenty years until he finally won. In 1970, the Clean Air Act was passed, which authorized federal and state limitations on emissions from both industrial and automotive sources.
Why did Clair Patterson need to use a meteorite to determine the age of the Earth rather than rocks found on Earth?
In using meteorites to calculate the age of the Earth, Patterson made two assumptions about rocks that proved to be correct. He assumed, just as Holmes did, that meteorites were leftover materials from the beginning of the solar system and that by being in space, they would maintain an unchanged interior chemistry.
Who first discovered the age of the Earth?
Who first discovered lead poisoning?
Lead’s toxicity was recognized and recorded as early as 2000 BC and the widespread use of lead has been a cause of endemic chronic plumbism in several societies throughout history. The Greek philosopher Nikander of Colophon in 250 BC reported on the colic and anemia resulting from lead poisoning.
How do we know the Earth is 4.5 billion years old?
By dating the rocks in Earth’s ever-changing crust, as well as the rocks in Earth’s neighbors, such as the moon and visiting meteorites, scientists have calculated that Earth is 4.54 billion years old, with an error range of 50 million years.
What happened to Patterson at Caltech?
At Caltech, a member of the board of trustees—an oil executive whose company peddled tetraethyl lead—called the university president and demanded they shut Patterson up. One day, the petroleum industry knocked on Patterson’s door. The four oil executives (or, as Patterson termed them, “white shirts and ties”) acted friendly.
What did James Patterson do at the California Institute of Technology?
Patterson got the money, and he eventually followed Brown west to start a new job at the California Institute of Technology. At Caltech, Patterson built the cleanest laboratory in the world. He tore out lead pipes in the geology building and re-wired the walls (lead solder coated the old wires).
What would Clair Patterson do?
Patterson would save our oceans, our air, and our minds from the brink of what is arguably the largest mass poisoning in human history. The tragedy began at the factories in Bayway, New Jersey. It would take Clair Patterson’s whole life to stop it. Clair Patterson. Courtesy of the Archives, California Institute of Technology
Where did James Patterson go to college?
Born in Mitchellville, Iowa, Patterson graduated from Grinnell College. He later received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and spent his entire professional career at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In collaboration with George Tilton, Patterson developed the uranium–lead dating method into lead–lead dating.