Beta Analytic in Miami, Florida, is now one of the laboratories in the Industries & Environment division of SGS in North America.
Radiocarbon Dating Water DIC & DOC
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Live Webinar: November 16, 2023 – 2 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Ice cores are a vital archive used in paleoclimatology — tracing temperature variability and atmospheric chemical composition. They are a build-up of snow (either in polar regions or high altitudes) occurring on annual cycles, resulting in distinct layers of ice which show seasonal variations (in the uncompacted surface material).
Maize is a short-lived plant, with a typical life cycle of 100-150 days. Thus, it makes a good candidate for radiocarbon dating as it represents a distinct period of time. Maize can be found in many different forms in the archaeological record, depending on the local context.
Carbonates are widely used in geology, paleoclimatology and paleontology as the oxygen and carbon therein are foundational for radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analyses.
Radiocarbon is integrated into carbon-bearing organisms during their lifetime. Radiocarbon is formed in the upper atmosphere through the reaction between cosmic rays and nitrogen (14N), forming three different types of carbon – one radioactive form (14C) as well as two stable forms (12C, 13C).
Live webinar: April 20, 2023 * Available on demand *
Speaker: Maren Pauly, PhD (Beta Analytic & Isobar Science Scientific Associate)
Isotopes & Dating in Marine Environments
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Live Webinar: Oct. 25, 2022 – Available on Demand
Speaker: Maren Pauly, PhD (Beta Analytic & Isobar Science Scientific Associate)
* Also available with Simplified Chinese subtitles *
Biogenic Apatite: Oxygen Isotope Analysis
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Live Webinar: Sept. 20, 2022 * Available on demand *
Speaker: Maren Pauly, PhD (Beta Analytic & Isobar Science Scientific Associate)
Pteropods are sea slugs of <1cm in size, which originated approximately 133 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous. They are commonly analyzed in modern climate as well as paleoclimate studies due to their abundance within the water column as well as their vulnerability to changing environmental conditions.
Beta Analytic recommends sending 5-100 mg of pteropods for radiocarbon dating. Costs for radiocarbon dating pteropods and other carbonates vary depending on the AMS service selected.
In 1940, radioactive carbon (14C) was discovered through its artificial creation at the Radiation Laboratory in the University of California Berkeley by Samuel Ruben and Martin Kamen. Through further research, it was discovered that the half-life of 14C was approximately 5,700 years and that it was created naturally in the atmosphere through the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen.
Undecided which method is best for your bone samples?
Watch this on-demand webinar for FREE.
Isotope Applications: Bone Samples in Archaeology
Presenter: Maren Pauly, PhD (Beta Analytic & Isobar Science Scientific Associate)
ACRA Webinar Invitation: A Focus on Bones
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Live Webinar: April 14, 2022
Presenters: Prof. James Watson (Arizona State Museum Associate Director) & Maren Pauly, PhD (Beta Analytic Scientific Associate)
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Live Webinar: April 6, 2022 * Available on Demand *
Speaker: Maren Pauly, PhD
Since the start of the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide (CO2) has been accumulating in the atmosphere as a result of human activities (e.g. combustion of fossil fuels and land use change) – with an increase of over 100ppm CO2 in the past 60 years alone.
Bones contaminated with polyvinyl acetate (PVA) require specialized pretreatment, such as solvent extractions, before radiocarbon dating. The success of the dating also varies if the bone has been soaked in PVA or if the PVA was applied in localized areas.
The remains of insects are dated using the exoskeleton made of chitin, which is a fibrous substance made up of polysaccharides. Given the very small size and weight of the exoskeletons, they have historically been very difficult to date.
There can be problems encountered when dating cores (organic sediment fraction) that have been stored for long periods of time depending on the storage conditions.
REGISTER HERE for FREE (available on demand)
Topic: Sediments – Dating & Environmental Reconstructions
Live Webinar: December 2, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Maren Pauly, Scientific Associate at Beta Analytic and Isobar Science
* Also available with Simplified Chinese subtitles *
REGISTER HERE (available on demand)
Topics include: Isotopes in dating, diets and migration studies
Live Webinar: October 21, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Maren Pauly, Scientific Associate at Beta Analytic and Isobar Science
REGISTER HERE for FREE (available on demand)
Topics include: Isotopes in Dating and Climate-Proxy Relationships
Live Webinar: September 22, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Maren Pauly, Scientific Associate at Beta Analytic and Isobar Science
Register here to view the FREE webinar “Sr-Nd-Hf-Pb Isotopes” on demand.
Live Webinar: June 24, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Arash Sharifi
Beta Analytic invites members of the American Cultural Resources Association (ACRA) to join the Radiocarbon Dating Basics webinar scheduled on May 13, 2021, from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM Eastern Time. Beta Analytic and Isobar Science account manager Dr. Maren Pauly is the speaker.
Register here to view the free webinar “Introduction to Lead (Pb) Isotopes and Applications” on demand.
Live Webinar: March 24, 2021
Speakers: Dr. Maren Pauly and Dr. Arash Sharifi
REGISTER HERE to view the FREE webinar on demand.
Live Webinar: February 17, 2021
Speakers: Dr. Arash Sharifi (Isobar Science VP of Lab Operations), Dr. Maren Pauly (Isobar Science Account Manager)
* Also available with Simplified Chinese subtitles *
Congratulations to the winners – 1st place: Ms. Fernanda Charqueño (CENAC-PNNH, CONICET), 2nd place: Lucía Rivas (CONICET-YTEC), 3rd place: Romina Achaga (CIFICEN-UNICEN).
Live Webinar: January 27, 2021 * Available on Demand (Free) *
Speaker: Dr. Maren Pauly, Beta Analytic and Isobar Science account manager
* Also available with Simplified Chinese subtitles *
Live Webinar: November 12, 2020 – Available on Demand (Free)
Speaker: Mr. Sean Ahearn, Beta Analytic’s project manager for water services.
* Also available with Simplified Chinese subtitles *
Live webinar: August 12, 2020 – Available on Demand (Free)
Speaker: Mr. Sean Ahearn, Beta Analytic’s project manager for water services.
Radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis of water can be useful to geotechnical firms. While under a tight schedule to meet a client’s deadline, receiving ISO 17025-accredited analytical results in a timely manner can result in successful project outcomes.
Live Webinar: May 27, 2020 * Free, Available on Demand * Speaker: Sean P. Ahearn, Beta Analytic’s Project Manager for water services
Beta Analytic’s first webinar was held on April 29, 2020. It is an introduction to isotopic analysis.* Also available with Simplified Chinese subtitles *
In 2020, Beta Analytic started to offer specialized isotope services for geochronology, geochemical fingerprinting, and environmental source tracking through its subsidiary Isobar Science.
There have been different methods of measuring carbon-14 since Willard Libby pioneered the radiocarbon dating technique in the 1940s – from the radiometric techniques of gas proportional counting and liquid scintillation counting to the more recent accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS).
Rescue archaeology plays the role of surveying and recovering any valuable finds from various sites. In the time-pressured environment of rescue archaeology, swift assessments and excavations where necessary are critical. For finds where radiocarbon dating is needed, this can throw a spanner in the works as the time lost waiting for results can be costly for the developers.
For deep sea corals, a combination of radiocarbon dating and uranium-thorium dating can be used. The carbon-14 date represents the age of the coral and the water, whereas the uranium-thorium date reflects the coral itself. This can provide information on past deep sea circulation rates.
Radiocarbon dating otoliths has the potential to confirm both the absolute age of individual fish and annuli formation. Despite the many techniques that can be used for age validation, only radiocarbon dating can provide the absolute age in a variety of fishes particularly the long-lived ones.
