The 1940 discovery of a radioactive version of carbon — the element that is the basis for all life — led to the technique of carbon dating that transformed virtually every field of science. Carbon-14 has been used to study everything from Stone Age cultures to modern elephant poaching. How it all happened is the story John Marra, an environmental scientist at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, tells in Hot Carbon: Carbon 14 and a Revolution in Science. The book was long-listed for the 2020 PEN-E.I. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.

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From The Graduate Center: John Marra’s ‘Hot Carbon’ Nominated for PEN-E.I. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

From Nature: Radiocarbon revolution: the story of an isotope

From Times Higher Education: Applause for a book celebrating the many applications of carbon dating