14CHRONOS (Chronologies from High-ResolutiON Organic Separations): a centre for radiocarbon dating of specific compounds for the environmental and archaeological sciences

精确计时是环境科学和考古科学的核心。放射性碳定年法是研究过去5万年事件的主要地质年代技术，但样本污染问题仍然是一个主要的担忧来源。避免污染可以通过识别特定的生物分子化合物来实现，这些化合物明确地构成了原始样品的一部分，并使用加速器质谱法分离这些生物分子进行放射性碳测年。在这里，我们请求资金建立澳大利亚第一个特定化合物的放射性碳测年设施，为气候和景观变化、进化生物学和考古学的关键研究获得高精度的年龄。

Accurate timekeeping is central to the environmental and archaeological sciences. Radiocarbon dating is the leading geochronological technique for events of the past 50,000 years, but the issue for sample contamination remains a major source of concern. Avoidance of contaminants can be achieved through the identification of specific biomolecular compounds that unambiguously formed part of the original sample, and the isolation of these biomolecules for radiocarbon dating using accelerator mass spectrometry. Here we request funds to establish Australia's first compound-specific radiocarbon dating facility, to obtain ages of high accuracy for key studies of climate and landscape change, evolutionary biology and archaeology.