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Revision as of 08:36, 16 September 2011
Hessel de Vries (November 15, 1916, Annen - December 23, 1959, Groningen), was a Dutch physicist and professor at the University of Groningen who furthered the detection methods and applications of radiocarbon dating to a variety of sciences. But for his untimely death, he might have been a Nobel laureate.[1] He has been called "the unsung hero of radiocarbon dating" by E. H. Willis.[2]
De Vries effect
In 1958, de Vries showed that baffling anomalies in the carbon-14 dates, observed by Willard Frank Libby for Egyptological samples, were in fact systematic anomalies on a global scale, represented in the carbon-14 dates of tree rings. This phenomenon has been called the "de Vries effect".[3] The correspondence with tree rings, which can be counted (one ring for each year), led to a recalibration of radiocarbon dating that was a large improvement in the accuracy.
Murder and suicide
De Vries committed suicide in 1959 after murdering a former analyst at his laboratory, with whom he was in love but who had become engaged to another man.[1][4] But for his death, he might have shared in the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which was awarded to Libby for his radiocarbon-dating method.
References
- ^ a b J. J. M. Engels (2002). "Vries, Hessel de (1916-1959)". [[Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland]] (in Dutch). Vol. 5.
{{cite book}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help) - ^ Willis, E. H. (1996), Radiocarbon dating in Cambridge: some personal recollections. A Worm's Eye View of the Early Days, [1].
- ^ Jan Šilar (2004). "Chapter 2. Radiocarbon". In Richard Tykva and Dieter Berg (ed.). Man-Made and Natural Radioactivity in Environmental Pollution and Radiochronology. Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 174. ISBN 1-4020-1860-6.
- ^ "Meisje doodgestoken in Groningen". Utrechts Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). 24 December 1959. p. 1.
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