Libby estimated that the steady-state radioactivity concentration of exchangeable carbon-14 would be about 14 disintegrations per minute (dpm) per gram.

This process begins when an organism is no longer able to exchange Carbon with their environment.

Carbon-14 is first formed when cosmic rays in the atmosphere allow for excess neutrons to be produced, which then react with Nitrogen to produce a constantly replenishing supply of carbon-14 to exchange with organisms.

He demonstrated the accuracy of radiocarbon dating by accurately estimating the age of wood from a series of samples for which the age was known, including an ancient Egyptian royal barge dating from 1850 BCE.

Before Radiocarbon dating was able to be discovered, someone had to find the existence of the C isotope.

The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE); at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's NOSAMS Facility.

Measuring carbon in the Pacific and Indian Ocean to understand better the processes of ocean circulation.The technique of radiocarbon dating was developed by Willard Libby and his colleagues at the University of Chicago in 1949.Emilio Segrè asserted in his autobiography that Enrico Fermi suggested the concept to Libby at a seminar in Chicago that year.The accuracy of this proposal was proven by dating a piece of wood from an Ancient Egyptian barge, of whose age was already known.From that point on, scientist have used these techniques to examine fossils, rocks, and ocean currents and determine age and event timing.The half-life of a radioactive isotope (usually denoted by $$t_$$) is a more familiar concept than $$k$$ for radioactivity, so although Equation $$\ref$$ is expressed in terms of $$k$$, it is more usual to quote the value of $$t_$$.