Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Miracles and the Natural Order - part 4

Can the Natural Order Change?

Some cite the concept of nishtane haTeva, that the natural order changed, as a way of explaining how contemporary scientific carbon dating yields a result that contradicts the simplest understanding of Bereishit, that the world is less than 6000 years old. They say, perhaps the half life of carbon changed, or perhaps there was a different concentration of carbon in the atmosphere early on, such that the data is skewed.

In light of this, there is an interesting article in Wired this week, about recalibrating carbon dating, because nishtaneh haTeva as a result of nuclear explosions.

Some choice quotes:
Scientists led by a team at the University of Chicago developed carbon dating in the 1950s. The technique dates a piece of dead organic material by measuring the rate of decay of a radioactive isotope known as carbon-14.

The problem: The level of carbon in the atmosphere -- and ultimately in living things -- varies over time. Scientists needed to calibrate their numbers, but that turned out to be a challenge because nuclear weapons used in testing and warfare changed the level of radioactivity in Earth's atmosphere in the 1950s and 1960s.

...

At first, scientists could only date materials to about 5,600 years ago, the half-life of carbon-14. After a while, newer technology expanded the reliability, but only so far because tree rings don't go back more than 12,400 years ago, said Paula J. Reimer, co-author of the new Radiocarbon report and director of the Center for Climate, the Environment & Chronology at Queen's University Belfast.


Of course, read the whole thing, but perhaps there is something to the idea of nishtaneh haTeva.

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