BIO_SC 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Archaea, Eukaryote, Radiocarbon Dating
Document Summary
Minerals in rocks contain a certain amount of radioactive isotopes, which decay & transform into element. Atoms can turn into a different element as protons are lost. We can measure the amount of radioactivity in rocks and use the information as. Can"t use carbon 14 dating because carbon is too small of an atom (only lasts about 15,000 years) Uranium can be used to date earth: puts the age of earth at ~4. 6 billion years old. Leaves a ~1. 6 billion year gap between formation of earth & start of life. No direct evidence for what was going on. Hypothesis: during that time, macromolecules (the building blocks of life) were being made. Macromolecules: nucleic acids proteins (amino acids) lipids carbohydrates. Harold urey and stanley miller hypothesized that they could synthesize organic molecules by replicating the chemical environment of early earth. Their experiment yielded new organic molecules, including amino acids.
