Radiocarbon age is just a number

Radioactivity is a spontaneous disintegration of an unstable nuclide and is a random process, as all the nuclei in the sample do not decay simultaneously. The number of disintegrations per unit time is called the activity (A), which is directly proportional to the number of nuclei in the sample. The decay constant (λ) is an average probability of decay per nucleus in unit time.

Elements have a set number of protons that determines their atomic number (Z). For example, all atoms with eight protons are oxygen; however, the number of neutrons can vary for atoms of the same element. The sum of the number of protons and the number of neutrons is the mass number (A). Atoms with the same atomic number but different mass numbers are called isotopes. Elements can have multiple isotopes, for example, carbon-12, carbon-13, and carbon-14.
An element's atomic mass, or weight,...

Carbon-13 is a naturally occurring NMR-active isotope of carbon with a low natural abundance of 1.1%. In contrast, carbon-12 is the most abundant isotope of carbon with zero nuclear spin. Therefore, it is NMR inactive. The gyromagnetic ratio of carbon-13 is smaller than that of protons. As a result, carbon-13 resonance is about 6000 times weaker than proton resonance. For a given magnetic field strength, the resonance frequency of carbon-13 is about one-fourth of the resonance frequency for...

The fossil record documents only a small fraction of all organisms that have ever inhabited Earth. Fossilization is a rare process, and most organisms never become fossils. Moreover, the fossil record only exhibits fossils that have been discovered. Nevertheless, sedimentary rock fossils of long-lived, abundant, hard-bodied organisms dominate the fossil record. These fossils offer valuable information, such as an organism's physical form, behavior, and age. Studying the fossil record helps...

The probability of having two carbon-13 atoms next to each other is negligible because of the low natural abundance of carbon-13. Consequently, peak splitting due to carbon-carbon spin-spin coupling is not observed in spectra. However, protons up to three sigma bonds away split the carbon signal according to the n+1 rule, resulting in complicated spectra.
A broadband decoupling technique is used to simplify these complex, sometimes overlapping, signals. Broadband decoupling relies on a...

In the early 1900s, English chemist Frederick Soddy realized that an element could have atoms with different masses that were chemically indistinguishable. These different types are called isotopes — atoms of the same element that differ in mass. Isotopes differ in mass because they have different numbers of neutrons but are chemically identical because they have the same number of protons. Soddy was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1921 for this discovery.
An isotope containing...