Libby later received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960 for the radiocarbon discovery. Today, there are over 130 radiocarbon dating laboratories around the world producing radiocarbon dates for the scientific community. The C14 method has been and continues to be applied and used in many, many different fields including hydrology, atmospheric science, oceanography, geology, palaeoclimatology, archaeology and biomedicine. All plants and animals on Earth are made principally of carbon. During the period of a plant's life, the plant is taking in carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, which is how the plant makes energy and grows.
Animals eat plants, and some eat other animals in the food chain.
Carbon follows this pathway through the food chain on Earth so that all living things are using carbon, building their bodies until they die. It is called 'radio'-carbon, because it is 'radioactive'. This means that its atomic structure is not stable and there is an uneasy relationship between the particles in the nucleus of the atom itself. Eventually, a particle is emitted from the carbon 14 atom, and carbon 14 disappears. Most of the carbon on Earth exists in a slightly different atomic form, although it is chemically speaking, identical to all carbon.