Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
O, samples enriched with the other stable isotopes can be used for isotope labeling. For example, it was proven that the oxygen released in photosynthesis originates in H 2 O, rather than in the also consumed CO 2, by isotope tracing experiments. The oxygen contained in CO 2 in turn is used to make up the sugars formed by photosynthesis.
Archaeological materials, such as bone, organic residues, hair, or sea shells, can serve as substrates for isotopic analysis. Carbon, nitrogen and zinc isotope ratios are used to investigate the diets of past people; these isotopic systems can be used with others, such as strontium or oxygen, to answer questions about population movements and cultural interactions, such as trade.
Isotope analysis is the determination of isotopic signature, the relative abundances of isotopes of a given element in a particular sample. Isotope analysis is frequently done by isotope ratio mass spectrometry. For biogenic substances in particular, significant variations of isotopes of C, N, and O can occur.
When cellular respiration breaks down carbon-containing molecules to release energy, carbon dioxide is released as a byproduct. The oxygen atoms in CO 2 exist in equilibrium with the isotopes of oxygen in body water. [6] Therefore if the oxygen in water is labeled with 18 O, then CO 2 produced by
An isotopic signature (also isotopic fingerprint) is a ratio of non-radiogenic 'stable isotopes', stable radiogenic isotopes, or unstable radioactive isotopes of particular elements in an investigated material. The ratios of isotopes in a sample material are measured by isotope-ratio mass spectrometry against an isotopic reference material.
Equilibrium isotope fractionation is the partial separation of isotopes between two or more substances in chemical equilibrium. Equilibrium fractionation is strongest at low temperatures, and (along with kinetic isotope effects) forms the basis of the most widely used isotopic paleothermometers (or climate proxies): D/H and 18 O/ 16 O records from ice cores, and 18 O/ 16 O records from calcium ...
This is a list of radioactive nuclides (sometimes also called isotopes), ordered by half-life from shortest to longest, in seconds, minutes, hours, days and years. Current methods make it difficult to measure half-lives between approximately 10 −19 and 10 −10 seconds. [1]
The δ values and absolute isotope ratios of common reference materials are summarized in Table 1 and described in more detail below. Alternative values for the absolute isotopic ratios of reference materials, differing only modestly from those in Table 1, are presented in Table 2.5 of Sharp (2007) [1] (a text freely available online), as well as Table 1 of the 1993 IAEA report on isotopic ...