I'm glad that Steven Smith has chimed in here. It seems that my post
on the subject has not sunk into Allen's grey matter. Maybe Steven's
comments will fair better.
However, regarding Steven's comment:
> Exception #2: Radioactive isotopes produced by known and natural
> processes like the production of Carbon-14 by sunlight
> in the upper atmosphere.
I suspect it may have been an inadvertent slip, but sunlight has
*nothing* to do with the production of C14. C14 is made in the upper
atmosphere when a N14 nucleus interacts with a neutron from a cosmic ray
secondary shower that occurred when a cosmic ray primary particle hits
some unsuspecting nucleus higher up in the amosphere and completely
shatters it into a whole shower of various varous subatomic secondary
particles (one of which happens to be the neutron that later entered the
N14 nucleus). As I understand it, once the neutron is absorbed into the
resulting excited N15 nucleus it (the nucleus, that is, not the neutron)
promptly de-excites by ejecting a proton. After this happens the
remaining nucleus is a C14 nucleus.
David Bowman
David_Bowman@georgetowncollege.edu
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