Beta Analytic's Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory

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• Beta Analytic's company leaders and lab managers have extensive experience on radiocarbon dating.
• The lab currently has 52 liquid scintillation counters and 2 AMS machines.
• Beta Analytic follows stringent procedures to ensure the quality of its results.
• Sample size matters when choosing the appropriate radiocarbon dating technique.

Every year, Beta Analytic performs up to 65% of all radiocarbon dating analyses worldwide. The company has been the world leader in radiocarbon dating services with more than 280,000 samples analyzed since 1979. Each analysis is provided with consistent accuracy and attentiveness to clients’ needs and concerns. Beta Analytic’s biggest advantage over low-cost university competitors is its fast turnaround time.

Beta Analytic’s core business is the radiocarbon dating of geological, hydrological, and archaeological materials. The company also measures the radiocarbon content of biobased products, biofuels, and gas combustion emissions according to the ASTM D6866 and CEN 15747 standards. Majority of Beta Analytic’s clients are from universities, government agencies, and environmental companies.

Company Leaders and Lab Managers

Murry Tamers, Ph.D. (Yale University), D.Sc. (Universite de Paris Sorbonne) and Jerry Stipp, Ph.D. (Australian National University) founded Beta Analytic, Inc., in 1979. They have both been instrumental in the development of radiocarbon dating as a method since 1959 and have published more than 100 papers on radiocarbon dating, geochronology, and hydrology. They formed Beta Analytic as a dedicated professional radiocarbon dating lab able to routinely provide accurate radiocarbon dates within a timely manner.

Today Beta Analytic is headed by Darden Hood, President, and Dr. Murry Tamers, Chairman. Mr. Hood joined Beta Analytic as a geochronologist in 1980. Deputy directors Ronald Hatfield and Chris Patrick, who joined the company in 1981 and 1985 respectively, manage the labs. With their extensive experience in all aspects of radiocarbon dating, they supervise a team of professional technicians and ensure that quality control is maintained at all levels.

The Beta Analytic Lab

The company is capable of around 3,000 radiocarbon analyses per month or up to 80 samples per day with its two facilities in Miami, Florida, which were built in a modular design such that expansion is readily achieved. The administrative offices, chemistry lab, 52 liquid scintillation counters, and one AMS are located in the main facility. The second facility houses a second AMS. Beta Analytic has been at its present location since 1988.

Each facility has strictly controlled access with no come-and-go traffic other than couriers, mailmen, and an occasional guest. Buildings are concrete with auto-locked doors. A special non-reproducible security key and code are required to gain access to the AMS detectors and server rooms.

The lab’s staff is mostly college graduates with degrees in various environmental and classic sciences. Each is a full-time employee with specific training and duties. No part-time or students are employed for the analyses. Expertise is redundant between technicians, and staffing is designed in excess to avoid delays if a person gets sick or is on vacation.

Laboratory Procedures and Quality Assurance

Samples for radiocarbon dating received at the lab via courier or mail are immediately subjected to substantial quality control measures starting with verifying that the submittal documentation matches the actual samples received. Redundant crosschecks are performed by multiple persons throughout the login, cataloging, pretreatment, chemical conversion, AMS loading and detection, data reduction, calculation and reporting.

Every sample analyzed is viewed by at least 7 persons prior to reporting results through different stages of the analysis. Each person crosschecks the work and labeling of the previous person, and each stage of the analysis has required quality control measures to ensure proper and accurate handling and analysis of the sample.

Calculation and reporting of results is performed using in-house software with built-in multiple crosschecks for each result. A broad system of crosschecks comprises 300 pages of quality control commitment outlined in Beta Analytic’s ISO-17025 quality assurance documentation.

Daily monitoring of instrumentation and chemical purity is also performed in addition to extensive computer crosschecks of statistical analyses and final age calculations.

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