February 27 1940 – Carbon-14 is Discovered by Martin Kamen and Samuel Ruben

February 27 1940 – Carbon-14 is Discovered by Martin Kamen and Samuel Ruben4.7 (93.33%) 3 votes *Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons A pair of men working at the University of California at Berkeley made a startling discovery on February 27, 1940 — one with implications for the future of science in everything from biology to anthropology. The two chemists, Martin Kamen and Samuel Ruben, realized basic the basic element of carbon had a radioactive isotope. Known as “carbon-14” due to its two additional neutrons, the ion exists in all sorts of natural organisms and can be used to estimate the age of materials up to 50,000 years old. Kamen and Ruben […]