The Essentials: In the Style of Twitter

In billions of years genes evolved and organisms have come and gone. Populations change over time. Hard to observe - not impossible.

Old Man River’s Got Nothin’ on You Earth (Part 1)

The Ussher chronology, developed by James Ussher in the 17^th century, puts the beginning of creation at 4004BC based on events in the Bible and especially the genealogies described in the Old Testament.  As of this writing, in the year 2012, the Ussher chronology puts the age of the Earth at 6016 years old.  There are several other contemporaries of Ussher’s who calculated similar beginning points and their reckonings are well received by many modern Bible readers.  A modern term for these folks is Young Earth Creationists or YECs.  Today’s post is not intended to describe the theology of the YEC perspective but is simply to say that science disagrees.

Science estimates the age of the Earth at about 4.5 billion. This number is not simply a frivolous guess but represents the agreement of multiple scientific disciplines.  The most notable methods for estimating Earths age is radiometric dating.  Samples from the Earth, Moon, and Mars have been subjected to radiometric measurements and they all indicate a similar 4.5 billion year beginning. 

Radiometric dating measures the concentration of certain elements in rock samples and uses those concentrations to estimate when that rock originally formed.  The class of elements of most interest for radiometric dating is isotopes.  Isotopes are varieties of elements that are naturally occurring but unstable. 

One of the best known isotopes is carbon 14.  The most common type of carbon is the stable form carbon 12.  The number following these elemental monikers represent the mass of the atom and reveals some details of the atoms structure.  Carbon is carbon because it has 6 protons. Along with its 6 protons, carbon 12 has 6 neutrons as well. The mass of 6 protons plus the mass of 6 neutrons equals a total mass number of 12.

If your head is swimming with all of the numbers take a moment to focus then see if you can figure out the number of neutrons in carbon 14… really try to figure it out… remember that carbon is carbon because it has 6 protons…remember that the mass number represents the total number of protons plus the total number of neutrons… do you have it?

The answer is… 8!  Great job if you got it!

You may be wondering why any of this matters. Well as a matter of fact this matter about matter matters quite a bit. Why this matters will be a matter for another day. Matter.