Bomb pulse

The figure shows how the relative concentration of 14C in the atmosphere, of order only 1 part per 1012, changed following the first bomb test in 1945.

Doubling of the concentration of 14C in the atmosphere is reflected in the tissues and cells of all organisms that lived around the period of nuclear testing.

This continuous decrease permits scientists to determine among other things the age of deceased people and allows them to study cell activity in tissues.

Given radioactive decay (14C's half-life is about 5,730 years), the relative amount of 14C left in the dead organism can be used to calculate how long ago it died.

As discussed above and in the Radiolab episode, Elements (section 'Carbon'),[4] in bomb pulse dating the slow absorption of atmospheric 14C by the biosphere, can be considered a chronometer.

[4] The fact that cells and tissues reflect the doubling of 14C in the atmosphere during and after nuclear testing, has been of great use for several biological studies, for forensics and even for the determination of the year in which certain wine was produced.

[8] Biological studies carried out by Kirsty Spalding demonstrated that neuronal cells are essentially static and do not regenerate during life.

[10] The radiocarbon bomb pulse has been used to validate otolith annuli (ages scored from otolith sections) across several fish species including the freshwater drum,[11] lake sturgeon,[12] pallid sturgeon,[13] bigmouth buffalo,[14] arctic salmonids,[15] Pristipomoides filamentosus[16], several reef fishes,[17] among numerous other validated freshwater and marine species.

[11][14][15] The bomb pulse has also been used to estimate (not validate) the age of Greenland sharks by measuring the incorporation of 14C in the eye lens during development.