Clair Cameron Patterson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Clair Cameron Patterson
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Clair Patterson
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| Born | June 2, 1922 Mitchellville, Iowa, United States
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| Died | December 5, 1995 (aged 73) Sea Ranch, California, United States
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| Alma mater |
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| Known for | Uranium–lead dating, age of the Earth, lead contamination |
| Spouse(s) |
Lorna "Laurie" Patterson
(m. 1944) |
| Children | 4 (Susan, Claire, Charles, Cameron) |
| Awards | Tyler Prize (1995) V. M. Goldschmidt Award (1980) J. Lawrence Smith Medal (1973) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Geochemistry |
| Institutions | California Institute of Technology |
| Thesis | The Isotopic Composition of Trace Quantities of Lead and Calcium (1951) |
| Doctoral advisor | Harrison Brown |
Clair Cameron Patterson (June 2, 1922 – December 5, 1995) was an American geochemist. He was born in Mitchellville, Iowa. Patterson went to Grinnell College and later earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He spent his whole career at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Working with George Tilton, Patterson helped create a way to date rocks using lead and uranium. By studying lead from a meteorite, he figured out the Earth's age. He found it was 4.55 billion years old. This number was much more accurate than previous guesses. It has been accepted since 1956.
Patterson first noticed lead contamination in the late 1940s. This was when he was a student at the University of Chicago. His work showed how much industrial lead had increased in the air and in people's bodies. His efforts led to tetraethyllead being banned from gasoline. He also helped ban lead solder from food cans.
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Early Life and Discoveries
Clair Patterson grew up in Mitchellville, Iowa. His father delivered mail, and his mother was on the school board. His family always encouraged him to be curious and learn new things. He finished high school in 1939 when he was 16.
He went to Grinnell College, where he studied chemistry. There, he met Lorna (Laurie) McCleary, who later became his wife. They both went to the University of Iowa for graduate school. Patterson earned a master's degree there. In 1944, they both worked on the Manhattan Project. This was a secret project during World War II. There, he learned about mass spectrometry, a way to measure tiny particles.
After the war, the Pattersons returned to Chicago. Laurie worked to support Clair while he studied for his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He made important discoveries about lead during this time. In 1952, Patterson moved to Caltech with his advisor, Harrison Brown. He stayed at Caltech for the rest of his life. He and Laurie had four children.
How We Know the Earth's Age
Patterson worked with his advisor, Harrison Brown, at the University of Chicago. Brown knew Patterson was good with mass spectrometry. So, he asked him to work with George Tilton on dating rocks using zircon crystals. Zircons are special because they contain tiny bits of uranium but no lead when they form. Any lead found in them must come from uranium decaying over time. This process is called U-Pb dating.
Patterson and Tilton's job was to measure the amounts of uranium and lead in zircons. Patterson focused on the lead. Their goal was to find the original lead in the Earth. This would help them figure out the age of the Earth and the entire solar system by also studying meteorites.
When they started in 1948, Patterson quickly realized his lead samples were getting dirty. Tilton's uranium measurements were correct, but Patterson's lead data always showed too much lead. After six years, they published a paper on dating zircon crystals. But they still hadn't found the Earth's age.
In 1953, Patterson moved to Caltech with Brown. There, Patterson built his own lab from scratch. He made sure no air or dirt could get in. He cleaned all his tools with acid and even purified his chemicals. He basically created one of the first "clean rooms" to stop lead from messing up his data.
With his new clean lab, he finished his work on the Canyon Diablo meteorite in 1953. He used a special machine to measure lead in the meteorite. In 1956, he published his famous paper, "Age of Meteorites and the Earth." It showed that the Earth and solar system were 4.55 billion years old. Before this, many people thought the Earth was much younger, around 3.3 billion years old. Patterson's discovery was a huge surprise and a major breakthrough!
Discovering Lead Pollution
Patterson's skill in finding tiny amounts of lead in rocks led him to study lead in ocean water. He looked at samples from the Atlantic and Pacific. He found that the amount of lead from human activities was over 100 times more than what naturally flowed into the ocean from rivers. This showed that the natural balance of lead was very disturbed.
He also found that deep ocean water had 20 times less lead than surface water. This was different from other metals. It made him question the idea that lead levels had only doubled from natural amounts.
Patterson went back to his original problem: the lead contamination in his lab samples. He studied ice cores from Greenland (1964) and Antarctica (1965). He found that lead levels in the air started to rise sharply when tetraethyl lead was widely used in fuel. This chemical was added to gasoline to stop engines from "knocking." Patterson realized that this, along with other uses of lead in factories, was causing the contamination. Because his findings showed a big risk to public health, he spent the rest of his life trying to remove lead from our environment.
Fighting Against Lead Poisoning
Starting in 1965, Patterson tried to warn people about the dangers of lead. He published a paper called Contaminated and Natural Lead Environments of Man. He faced strong opposition from other scientists and industries.
Patterson fought hard to remove lead from gasoline. He went against powerful companies like Ethyl Corporation. He also challenged the legacy of Thomas Midgley Jr., who invented tetraethyllead. Because he criticized the lead industry, many research groups refused to work with him. In 1971, he was even kept off a national panel about lead in the air, even though he was the top expert.
The United States made unleaded gasoline mandatory for new cars starting in 1975. But Patterson's efforts helped speed up the complete removal of lead from all regular gasoline by 1986. After this, lead levels in the blood of Americans dropped by about 80% by the late 1990s.
Many people used to think that "normal" levels of lead in blood, soil, and air were harmless. Patterson argued that "normal" just meant "typical" or "common." He said that just because a certain level of lead was common, it didn't mean it was safe. He insisted that "natural" lead levels were only those that existed before humans started adding it to the environment.
Thanks to his super-clean lab, Patterson's measurements were very accurate. He studied ancient Peruvian mummies and tuna from clean ocean waters. He found that modern human bones had 700 to 1200 times more lead than ancient bones. This showed that humans had not adapted to these high lead levels.
Patterson also focused on lead in food. He found that some canned fish had much higher lead levels than fresh fish. In 1978, he was part of a national panel. He wrote a separate report saying that lead should be removed from gasoline, food cans, paint, and water pipes right away.
Death
Clair Patterson passed away at his home in Sea Ranch, California, on December 5, 1995. He was 73 years old. He died from a severe asthma attack.
Awards and Honors
- J. Lawrence Smith Medal, 1973 (National Academy of Sciences)
- V. M. Goldschmidt Award, 1980 (Geochemical Society)
- Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, 1995 (University of Southern California)
- A small planet, 2511 Patterson, is named after him.
Memorials
- The Clair C. Patterson Award is given every year since 1998 by the Geochemical Society.
Legacy
Patterson was mentioned in a 2022 documentary by Derek Muller, The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History. Patterson was also featured in "The Clean Room", an episode of the TV series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.
See also
In Spanish: Clair Cameron Patterson para niños
