Carbon-14, 14C, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon discovered on February 27, 1940, by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben. Its nucleus contains 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is used extensively as basis of the radiocarbon dating method to date archaeological, geological, and hydrogeological samples.There are three naturally occurring isotopes of carbon on Earth: 99% of the carbon is carbon-12, 1% is carbon-13, and carbon-14 occurs in trace amounts, making up as much as 1 part per trillion (0.0000000001%) of the carbon on the Earth. The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730±40 years. It decays into nitrogen-14 through beta-decay. The activity of the modern radiocarbon standardis about 14 disintegrations per minute (dpm) per gram carbon .The atomic mass of carbon-14 is about 14.003241 amu. The different isotopes of carbon do not differ appreciably in their chemical properties. This is used in chemical research in a technique called carbon labeling: some

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon 14
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