The Godwin Laboratory is a

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

facility at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. It was originally set up to investigate

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...

and its applications, and was one of the first laboratories to determine a radiocarbon

calibration curve In analytical chemistry, a calibration curve, also known as a standard curve, is a general method for determining the concentration of a substance in an unknown sample by comparing the unknown to a set of standard samples of known concentration. ...

. The lab is named after the English scientist

Harry Godwin Sir Harry Godwin, FRS (9 May 1901 – 12 August 1985) was a prominent English botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxon ...

History

With the late Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton in charge, the focus of research shifted to marine

isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...

records, which document changes in the size of

polar Polar may refer to: Geography * Geographical pole, either of the two points on Earth where its axis of rotation intersects its surface ** Polar climate, the climate common in polar regions ** Polar regions of Earth, locations within the polar circ ...

ice sheet In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacier, glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are the Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet. Ice s ...

s 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 timescale The geologic time scale or geological time scale (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronolo ...

s, covering the last 30 million years, on the basis of this hypothesis. Other areas researched by members of the laboratory include

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

records and

tree ring Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate ...

s 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 The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

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

Institutions in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge Geology of the United Kingdom Radiocarbon dating Research institutes in Cambridge {{Radioactivity-stub