Willard Libby

“The first shock of a great discovery... is a moment of highest experience.”

“It is a strange and wonderful fact that the atom, which is the basis of all matter, can be made to reveal its age.”

“The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions.”

“Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.”

“The basic idea of radiocarbon dating is simple: all living things absorb carbon from the atmosphere.”

“Atomic energy for peaceful purposes is a goal we must all strive for.”

“The world has a chance to live in peace if it can find a way to control the atom.”

“No matter how we may have come by the carbon, the important thing is to have it.”