Carbon-14 by the C urea breath test, which has no radiation issues. Carbon-14 Carbon-14, (C), or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and colleagues (1949) to date archaeological, geological and hydrogeological samples. Carbon-14 was discovered on February 27, 1940, by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Its existence had been suggested by Franz Kurie in 1934. There are three naturally occurring isotopes of carbon
Hydrogen isotope biogeochemistry used which has an isotope ratio of 155.76 ±0.1 ppm. The delta value as compared to this standard is defined as: These delta values are often quite small, and are usually reported as per mil values (‰) which come from multiplying the above equation by a factor of 1000. The study of hydrogen isotope biogeochemistry relies on the fact that various physicochemical processes will preferentially enrich or deplete deuterium relative to protium (see kinetic isotope effect, etc.). There are various measures that have been developed to described the fractionation in an isotope between two pools, often the product and reactant