On May 27, 2009, at 12:23 PM, Mixon Bill wrote:
That news release posted by Mark Minton about dating pictographs is
misleading. The technique it brags about, accelerator mass
spectrometry, is not new. This sort of nonsense is, unfortunately,
typical of the stuff put out by universities' publicity hacks. What
may be new is the sample-preparation technique that the author of
the article uses to get the carbon for AMS without including any old
carbon from the limestone on which the pictographs were drawn.
Bill,
That web site was not a university web site but a lab equipment supply
site, and they cite their source as the American Chemical Society web
site (which publishes the journal "Analytical Chemistry"). This seems
more like an attempt to spice up the lab supply web site by the
company publicity hacks rather than some university publicity-inspired
nonsense.
The author was not claiming that the accelerator mass spectrometry
technique is new, quite the contrary, there are references in the
paper to this technique that date from 1977 (more than 30 years
ago!).What was the purpose of this Feature article in the journal
"Analytical Chemistry"? This journal is aimed at people who do basic
research in the field of analytical chemistry, which includes people
who build new analytical instruments. Marvin Rowe was invited by the
journal editors to write a review article about applied analytical
chemistry research that primarily gets published in archaeological
journals. The typical readership of "Analytical Chemistry" would not
be familiar with this literature.
Marvin Rowe even states that he has been collecting this data for 15
years (one of his references to his own work dates to 1994), and he
thanks the many people who have helped him, including some folks that
many Texas cavers may know (Allan Cobb & James Brady).
Professor Rowe seems like an interesting potential speaker for next
year's TSA Spring Convention.
Diana
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Diana R. Tomchick
Associate Professor
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Department of Biochemistry
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Rm. ND10.214B
Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A.
Email: [email protected]
214-645-6383 (phone)
214-645-6353 (fax)
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