First developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby, the technique is based on the decay of the carbon-14 isotope. Radiocarbon dating has been used for historical studies ...

The use of carbon-14 as a tracer has transformed biochemistry by allowing chemical processes, such as photosynthesis, to be followed with relative ease. Archaeology has also benefited from the ...

This is now the most widely used method of age estimation in the field of archaeology ... isotopes. Carbon has three main isotopes. They are carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14.

When they die, the carbon-14 starts to change into other atoms over time ... The breakthrough introduced a new scientific rigor to archaeology, allowing scholars to piece together a history of humans ...