clair patterson

6
Clair Patterson Erika Gallagher 3A

description

f

Transcript of clair patterson

Page 1: clair patterson

Clair Patterson

Erika Gallagher3A

Page 2: clair patterson

Clair Patterson was born on June 2, 1922, in Mitchellville, Iowa. His father was a postal worker and his mother was on the school board. His interest in science started when he was a boy, when he experimented with a chemistry set in his basement. He graduated from Grinnell College where he met his wife, Laurie McLeary. During World War II, he and his wife were sent to work on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago. He studied chemistry and received his Ph.D. in 1950. He spent this entire professional career at the California Institute of Technology. He and Laurie had four children. He died in 1995 at age 73.

Page 3: clair patterson

Clair Patterson’s main achievement was uncovering the dangers of led poisoning while trying to discover the age of the earth. His doctoral advisor, Harrison Brown, gave him the task of measuring the amount of lead in zircon crystals found in a meteorite fragment from the beginning of the solar system. His colleague, George Tilton, was measuring the uranium in the crystals. The uranium levels remained constant, but Patterson’s lead results were wildly different every time he tested them. They were also much higher than they should have been. He thought that the natural lead in the environment was affecting his results, so he spent years trying to remove every trace of lead from his lab. In 1953, he had the chance to use a mass spectrometer. A mass spectrometer separates elements in a sample, so he could measure the amount of lead without any outside contamination. He was able to calculate the age of the earth as 4.55 billion years old, much higher than the previously assumed age of 3.3 billion years.

Page 4: clair patterson

When Patterson was measuring levels of lead, he discovered that today’s amounts of lead are up to 1,000 times greater than they were in ancient times. He figured out that 90% of lead in the atmosphere came from exhaust pipes from cars using leaded tetraethyl gasoline. By studying ice-core samples from Greenland, he discovered that there was almost no lead in the atmosphere before 1923, the year that ethyl lead gasoline was introduced.

Page 5: clair patterson

Quotes

“The mining and smelting of lead and dispersal of manufactured lead products within the human environment is a monumental crime committed by humanity against itself.”

“True scientific discovery renders the brain incapable at such moments of shouting vigorously to the world, “Look what I’ve done! Now I will reap the benefits of recognition and wealth.” Instead such discovery instinctively forces the brain to thunder, “We did it.” in a voice no one else can hear, within it’s sacred but lonely chapel of scientific thought.”

“You see, we don’t die, really. Physically we do, perhaps. But we’re part of a whole. We’re a unit; we’re Homo sapiens. We are brain containers.”

Page 6: clair patterson

Clair Patterson was one of the most influential geologists of the 20th century. He is almost single handedly responsible for the passing of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the ban of leaded gasoline in the United States. Lead levels in the blood of Americans fell by 80% after the act was passed. His calculations for the age of the earth have not been changed for 50 years.