Fact

Nuclear testing left a timestamp in every living thing

Atmospheric bomb tests doubled carbon-14, and biology recorded the spike.

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Above-ground nuclear testing from the 1950s produced a sharp rise and then decline in atmospheric carbon-14. Because living tissue incorporates carbon from the atmosphere, this bomb pulse can date when cells formed. It has been used to show that some human neurons are as old as the person, while other tissues renew constantly.

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