When he received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1960, Willard Libby gave a lecture...

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Chemistry

   When he received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in1960, Willard Libby gave a lecture about radioactive dating to theking of Sweden and assembled guests in Stockholm.
a)   It was suspected that cosmic rays from space hit theEarth. What evidence confirmed this hypothesis?

b)   What did Libby have to assume to reach theconclusion that the expected specific radioactivity of livingmatter would be 2.0/8.5 disintegrations per second per gram of C?What evidence was there to confirm his conclusion?
  

c)   Libby concluded that we humans are in steadystate with respect to our own concentrations of carbon-14 whilealive but not after death. How did he justify thisconclusion?
  
d)   On what basis did Libby conclude that humans areradioactive? What evidence did he collect to test hisconclusion?

And here is the link provided for answering this question:http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1960/libby-lecture.pdf

Answer & Explanation Solved by verified expert
4.4 Ratings (887 Votes)
aIt was suspected that cosmic rays from space hit the Earth What evidence confirmed this hypothesis These comic rays are high energy particle which travel with high velocities and bombard the earths atmosphere When cosmic particles strike the earths atmosphere collisions with air molecules initiate cascades of secondary particles These showers often containing many millions of particles fall to earth over a large area These can be detected by various kinds    See Answer
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