History
Carbon dating was developed by American scientist Willard Libby and his team at the University of Chicago. Libby calculated the half-life of carbon-14 as 5568 ± 30 years, a figure now known as the Libby half-life. Following a conference at the University of Cambridge in 1962, a more accurate figure of 5730 ± 40 years was agreed upon based on more recent experimental data (this figure is now known as the Cambridge half-life).
The chairman of the Cambridge conference, Harry Godwin, wrote to the scientific journal Nature, recommending that the Libby half-life continue to be used for the time being, as the Cambridge figure might itself be improved by future experiments. Laboratories today continue to use the Libby figure to avoid inconsistencies with earlier publications, although the Cambridge half-life is still the most accurate figure that is widely known and accepted. However, the inaccuracy of the Libby half-life is not relevant if calibration is applied: the mathematical term representing the half-life is canceled out as long as the same value is used throughout a calculation.
Read more about this topic: Radiocarbon Dating
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