When a researcher picks up an object — whether it’s a scrap of leather from a dig site, a fossil from a museum drawer or a newly fallen meteorite — their first question might be, “What is this thing?” ...

Geologists have calculated the age of Earth at 4.6 billion years. But for humans whose life span rarely reaches more than 100 years, how can we be so sure of that ancient date? It turns out the ...

Despite seeming like a relatively stable place, the Earth's surface has changed dramatically over the past 4.6 billion years. Mountains have been built and eroded, continents and oceans have moved ...

Radiometric dating, utilizing the predictable decay rates of radioactive isotopes within rocks and other materials, is the primary method for determining the age of geological samples. Multiple ...

In 1902 Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy discovered that radioactive elements, such as uranium and thorium, broke down into other elements in a predictable sequence or series. This amazing fact ...

Isaac Skromne receives funding from National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health. Even though scientists like me weren’t around to see for ourselves what was happening on Earth so long ...

Most people are busy with life on Earth. They rarely get the chance to think deeply about complex topics. And so they take the ideas of why we know certain things with relatively equal values — maybe ...