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6.1 identify that Kamen and Ruben discovered C14 and demonstrated that radioactive carbon dioxide could be used to investigate the chemical transformations of carbon dioxide during photosynthesis in 1940
identify that Kamen and Ruben discovered C14 and demonstrated that radioactive carbon dioxide could be used to investigate the chemical transformations of carbon dioxide during photosynthesis in 1940
- Sam Ruben at the University of California, Berkeley, pioneered the concept of using radioactive carbon to trace the early events of CO2 fixation. As early as 1939, Ruben had been feeding 11CO2 to the single cell algae Chlorella. The short lifetime of the isotope (21 minutes) prevented a clear result. In collaboration, Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben succeeded in discovering and preparing sufficient 14C to determine its half life as 5,700 years. Ruben was killed in a laboratory accident before large-scale methods for production of 14C were practical and Kamen was dismissed from the Berkeley Laboratories as a security risk. They had discovered and pioneered the use of 14C in biochemical reactions but the work was to be carried on by Melvin Calvin and his co-workers.