Editing Nucleocosmochronology (section)

== History ==
The first use of nuclear cosmochronology was in 1929, by [[Ernest Rutherford]], who, shortly after the discovery that uranium has [[Isotopes of uranium|two naturally occurring radioactive isotopes]] with different half-lives, attempted to use the ratio to determine when the uranium had been produced.<ref name=":1" /> He suggested that both had been produced in equal abundances, assuming they had been produced in a single moment in time, and applied an argument based on incorrect assumptions about astrophysics to derive an incorrect age of about 6 billion years.<ref name=":1" />{{Clarification needed|reason=Were these all the incorrect assumptions or were there more?|date=August 2024}} He pioneered the idea that age could be calculated by the ratio of abundances of radioactive parent elements and their stable decay products.<ref name=":1" />

According to a tribute written by colleagues, a large part of the modern science of nuclear cosmochronology grew out of work by [[John Reynolds (physicist)|John Reynolds]] and his students.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Price |first=P. Buford |date=2004 |title=John H. Reynolds |url=https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/11172/chapter/16 |access-date=25 August 2024 |magazine=Biographical Memoirs |publisher=[[National Academy of Sciences]] |pages=249–267 |volume=85}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Pratt |first=Sarah E. |date=25 September 2015 |title=Benchmarks: January 1, 1960: The Discovery of "Extinct Radioactivity" The quest to date the elements that formed the solar system |url=https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-january-1-1960-discovery-extinct-radioactivity-quest-date-elements-formed-solar/ |access-date=25 August 2024 |magazine=Earth Magazine}}</ref> 

Model-independent techniques were developed in 1970.<ref name=":1" />{{Clarification needed|reason=Were all or only some techniques before this model-dependent?|date=August 2024}}