From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
Godwin Laboratory
is a
research
facility at the
University of Cambridge
. It was originally set up to investigate
radiocarbon dating
and its applications, and was one of the first laboratories to determine a radiocarbon
calibration curve
. The lab is named after the English scientist
Harry Godwin
.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
With the late
Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton
in charge, the focus of research shifted to
marine
isotope
records, which document changes in the size of
polar
ice sheets
and temperature changes. This research helped to establish the
Milankovitch Theory
as the most plausible explanation of glacial/interglacial changes over the past million years, and was continued to develop much more extensive
geological timescales
, covering the last 30 million years, on the basis of this hypothesis. Other areas researched by members of the laboratory include
pollen
records and
tree rings
as a proxy for past climate. The laboratory changed principal allegiance from the Department of Plant Sciences to the
Department of Earth Sciences
around 1995.
In 2005, after Nick Shackleton's retirement, the laboratory was incorporated into the building housing the Department of Earth Sciences, where it continues to operate. It is part of the inter-departmental Godwin Institute for
Quaternary
Research, a loose collection of Cambridge University research facilities and workers focused on research particularly addressing the history of the last 1.8 million years.
References
[
edit
]
52°12′11″N
0°07′20″E
/
52.2030°N 0.1221°E
/
52.2030; 0.1221