European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 26, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                14 v much of world May be older than believed Isaac Asimov every once in a while As new information is uncovered scientists mus make changes in assumptions i which they had Felt quite  happened after what Richard Fairbanks of Columbia University discovered while drilling into the Coral reefs off the West Indian Island of Barbados beginning in 1988. He reported various findings this year and found that some of the dates that archaeologists had been relying on needed to be revised. The dates in question arc those obtained by studying the Carbon-14 Content of old objects. Carbon atoms come in three varieties Carbon 12, Carbon-13 and Carbon-14 in traces. Of. These Carbon-12 and Carbon-13 arc stable but Carbon-14 Breaks Down slowly. As Long As any organism is alive it continues to incorporate fresh Carbon into its tissues including Carbon 14. The new Carbon-14 is incorporated As fast As the old Breaks Down so the Quantity within the tissue remains steady. After any organism Dies How Over the car Bon-14 it contains Breaks Down while no new Carbon-14 is incorporated. This Means that the Quantity of Carbon-14 slowly declines and from the amount it declines scientists can Tell How Long it has been since the material was alive. In this Way scientists can Date old pieces of Wood or charcoal and Tell How Long it has been since they were part of living Trees. They can Date old seeds or bits of dead Coral and toll How Long it has been since they were alive. The method looks perfectly reliable. Car Bon-14 Breaks Down at a steady and unchanging rate and measurements of the Quantity present Are delicate and precise. What can go wrong a lot depends on How much Carbon-14 in the form of Carbon dioxide there is in the environment to begin with. If the Quantity rises More is incorporated and if the Quantity Falls less is incorporated. Volcanic action in creases Carbon dioxide Content in the air and so does an increase in cosmic Ray activity. A fall in Ocean temperature increases the amount of Carbon dioxide that dissolves in the Ocean. This Means that scientists can t be certain How much Carbon-14 ought to have been in the material when alive and therefore How old the current level indicates it to be. The simplest Assumption is to suppose the Carbon-14 level in the environment has always been about the same but it in t really accurate to do so. The Best thing to do is to correlate the car Bon-14 findings with other ways of checking age for instance some Ages can be determined both by tree rings and by Carbon-14. Tree ring indicate the changing Levels of Carbon-14. There was reason to think that Ages determined by the Carbon-14 method were too Low but it was hard to Tell by How much especially since tree ring data Only goes Back 10,000 years. The drillings in the corals give Ages much older than that and they can be checked by determining the Quantity of uranium and thorium isotopes that Are present. They also break Down at a steady and known rate. But there is no question of changing quantities of those isotopes with time so that the uranium thorium Ages arc More reliable than the Carbon-14 Ages especially now thai the measurement techniques of the uranium thorium isotopes have been refined and made More accurate. What it shows now is a discrepancy of about 20 percent. Using Carbon-14 data it had seemed that the Peak of the most recent ice age was 18,000 years ago but it now seems that actually it was 21,500 years ago. Whenever such changes Are found necessary non scientists often say More or less gleefully All the textbooks will have to be rewritten but that is rarely the Case. Actually it just Means a few paragraphs will have to be edited. The new attitude toward Carbon-14 Ages does t alter the order in which events happened. It just makes everything that has been subjected to Carbon-14 dating up to 20 percent older than had been thought. Los Angeles times Syndicate at a glance Mediterranean sea Malta Sie 122 Square Miles twice the Sie of Washington . Population 358,000 1989 estimate main Lan use maltese English both official currency. Pound 1 Pound = $3.2 � travel restrictions no visa required Tor american tourists. Overview Malta a former British Colony has been Independent since 19 4 and a Republic since la 74. 1  country is made up of a Cluster of islands and sits in a strategic spot in the Mediterranean sea Between Europe and Northern Africa. The land is mostly Low plateaus which permit some farming. There Are no mountains or Rivers All fresh water comes from Springs or Wells. The capital Valotta is built on a Peninsula on the Rocky East coast amid a network of sheltered Crit is. It s a fact Malta is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe straining its limited natural resources. The people rely heavily on imports tourism and a Large British a Al base for Surv is Al. Any questions How can a sailing vessel move faster than the actual Speed of the wind the concept of sails is very much like the concept of the air plane  said Terry Harper of the America s cup organi ing committee in san Diego. The idea is to curve or Sluice the sail so that As. Wind goes across the sail it  if you simply propel a toy boat with a puff of wind the wind fills the a cd. 1 lie u ind ii i. Ins t. Of the ail than it i across the i Loni. 1 Laos the wind coming across the front is taster than when it is standing still. This creates More Forward movement which creates More air velocity Etc. Then Why does t the boat move faster and faster like an air plane  asked. The shape of the boat As it moves through water creates drag. And other forces on the water like wave action and the current also slow the boat  properly designed sailboats can reach speeds of 40 or 50 Miles per hour Harper said. Ice boats which face less resistance can go almost 100 Miles per hour. Starts to  Forward. Sih Erat the Back i it conies . I h., Ilii i e \ i