In botany, plant cuticles are protective, hydrophobic, waxy coverings produced by the epidermal cells of leaves, young shoots and all other aerial plant organs.Cuticles minimize water loss and effectively reduce pathogen entry due to their waxy secretion.he cuticle both prevents plant surfaces from becoming wet and helps to prevent plants from drying out. Xerophytic plants such as cactus have very thick cuticles to help them survive in their arid climates.
radiometric dating. n. 1. (Archaeology) any method of dating material based on the decay of its constituent radioactive atoms, such as potassium-argon dating or rubidium-strontium dating. Also called: radioactive dating.
Radiocarbon dating is one of the best known archaeological dating techniques available to scientists, and the many people in the general public have at least heard of it. But there are many misconceptions about how radiocarbon works and how reliable a technique it is. Radiocarbon dating was invented in the 1950s by the American chemist Willard F. Libby and a few of his students at the University of Chicago: in 1960, he won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention.