Travelling with isotopes: radiocarbon dating and the interdisciplinarization of climate science.

Authors

Dania Achermann

Published in

British journal for the history of science. Pages 1-21. Jul 10, 2026. Epub Jul 10, 2026.

Abstract

The history of post-war climate science has been written with a strong focus on the role of global geopolitics and climate models. In this article, I will broaden this perspective with a smaller-scale approach and a different technology. Drawing on the history of a radiocarbon dating laboratory in Switzerland, I show, on one hand, how local political and cultural contexts could influence the development of climate science and, on the other, how research technology beyond computer modelling also played a crucial role in this development. I argue that such a smaller-scale approach can help us to better understand the process of the interdisciplinarization of climate science, as well as the role of technology in this process.

PMID:
42429046
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 10 Jul 2026.

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