Collected Papers; Volume I, Tritium and Radiocarbon

Various paginations (640 pages per bibliographic reference). Footnotes. Figures. Tables. References. Ex-Los Alamos National Laboratory with usual library markings. Back cover tear. This collection of W. F. Libby's papers contains all those on Radiocarbon and Tritium Dating and Tracing. The papers are introduced briefly by either a collaborator or the editors. After the war, Libby accepted an offer from the University of Chicago of a professorship in the Chemistry Department at the new Institute for Nuclear Studies. He returned to his studies of radioactivity. In 1939, Serge Korff had discovered that cosmic rays generated neutrons in the upper atmosphere. These interact with nitrogen-14 in the air to produce carbon-14: 1n + 14N 14C + 1p. The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730±40 years. Libby realized that when plants and animals die they cease to ingest fresh carbon-14, thereby giving any organic compound a built-in nuclear clock. He published his theory in 1946 and expanded on it in his monograph Radiocarbon Dating in 1955. He also developed sensitive radiation detectors that could use the technique. Tests against sequoia with known dates from their tree rings showed radiocarbon dating to be reliable and accurate. The technique revolutionized archaeology, paleontology and other disciplines that dealt with ancient artifacts. In 1960, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science". He also discovered that tritium similarly could be used for dating water, and therefore wine. Willard Frank Libby (December 17, 1908 - September 8, 1980) was an American physical chemist noted for his role in the 1949 development of radiocarbon dating, a process which revolutionized archaeology and paleontology. For his contributions to the team that developed this process, Libby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960. A 1931 chemistry graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, from which he received his doctorate in 1933, he studied radioactive elements and developed sensitive Geiger counters to measure weak natural and artificial radioactivity. During World War II he worked in the Manhattan Project's Substitute Alloy Materials (SAM) Laboratories at Columbia University, developing the gaseous diffusion process for uranium enrichment. After the war, Libby accepted professorship at the University of Chicago's Institute for Nuclear Studies, where he developed the technique for dating organic compounds using carbon-14. He also discovered that tritium similarly could be used for dating water, and therefore wine. In 1950, he became a member of the General Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). He was appointed a commissioner in 1954, becoming its sole scientist. He sided with Edward Teller on pursuing a crash program to develop the hydrogen bomb, participated in the Atoms for Peace program, and defended the administration's atmospheric nuclear testing. Libby resigned from the AEC in 1959 to become Professor of Chemistry at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a position he held until his retirement in 1976. In 1962, he became the Director of the University of California statewide Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP).