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Science 29 October 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5441, pp. 882 - 883
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5441.882
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News of the Week

GEOCHEMISTRY:
Tweaking the Clock of Radioactive Decay

Richard A. Kerr

Radioactive decay--the pacemaker of geologic time--can no longer be called precisely "clocklike." In the 15 September issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters, a geochemist reports that the decay rate of beryllium-7 varies, depending on its chemical form. The variations seen so far are much too small, just a percentage or so, to affect Earth's overall time scale. Still, the variability in beryllium decay will prompt those who want to trace out fine divisions in the earliest reaches of time to take a close look at their pacemakers.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)