{"id":1639,"date":"2010-05-09T09:41:25","date_gmt":"2010-05-09T13:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richard.rathe.org\/?p=1639"},"modified":"2010-06-29T03:31:04","modified_gmt":"2010-06-29T07:31:04","slug":"clair-cameron-patterson-earth-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/2010\/clair-cameron-patterson-earth-lead","title":{"rendered":"Clair Cameron Patterson, the Age of the Earth, and Environmental Lead"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1640\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1640\" style=\"width: 148px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1640  \" title=\"clair-cameron-patterson\" src=\"http:\/\/richard.rathe.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/clair-cameron-patterson.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"148\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/clair-cameron-patterson.jpg 148w, https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/clair-cameron-patterson-111x150.jpg 111w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 148px) 85vw, 148px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1640\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: nap.edu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I&#8217;m currently reading\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/richard.rathe.org\/2010\/05\/a-short-history-of-nearly-everything-by-bill-bryson\/\">A Short History of Nearly Everything<\/a><\/em> by\u00a0Bill Bryson. About a third of the way in he introduces\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Clair_Cameron_Patterson\" target=\"_blank\">Clair Cameron Patterson<\/a><\/strong> who could be the model of the modern citizen\/scientist.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a short synopsis of his career: Born in Iowa; attended Grinnell College, U of Iowa, U of Chicago; participated in the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Manhattan_Project\" target=\"_blank\">Manhattan Project<\/a><\/strong> to build the first <strong>Atomic Bomb<\/strong>, studied isotope decay in terrestrial rocks and meteorites to establish the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_the_Earth#Modern_radiometric_dating\" target=\"_blank\">age of the earth at 4.5 billion years<\/a><\/strong>; noticed during that research that all his samples were <strong>contaminated with lead<\/strong>; discovered that the <strong>lead was in the very air we breathe<\/strong> as a result of <strong>leaded gasoline<\/strong> and industrial processes; suffered at the hands of the powerful <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ethyl_Corporation\" target=\"_blank\">Ethyl Corporation<\/a><\/strong> and malicious bureaucratic forces; stood his ground and ultimately prevailed; lived to see\u00a0<strong>lead removed from fuel<\/strong> and many other manufactured goods.<\/p>\n<p>We can all breathe easier!<\/p>\n<p>Biographical Memoir\u00a0(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nap.edu\/html\/biomems\/cpatterson.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">PDF<\/a>) (<a href=\"http:\/\/books.nap.edu\/openbook.php?record_id=6201&amp;page=266\" target=\"_blank\">HTML<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/oralhistories.library.caltech.edu\/32\/00\/OH_Patterson.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Interview at Cal Tech<\/a> (just before he died)<\/p>\n<p>Obituaries (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1995\/12\/08\/us\/clair-c-patterson-who-established-earth-s-age-is-dead-at-73.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>) (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.im.microbios.org\/03setember98\/11%20Casanova.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">microbios.org<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m currently reading\u00a0A Short History of Nearly Everything by\u00a0Bill Bryson. About a third of the way in he introduces\u00a0Clair Cameron Patterson who could be the model of the modern citizen\/scientist. Here is a short synopsis of his career: Born in Iowa; attended Grinnell College, U of Iowa, U of Chicago; participated in the Manhattan Project &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/2010\/clair-cameron-patterson-earth-lead\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Clair Cameron Patterson, the Age of the Earth, and Environmental Lead&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,8,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-people","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1639"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1827,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions\/1827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}