Extracting Messages from the Bottle

Josh Burton, a research assistant in the WHOI-operated National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (NOSAMS) facility adjusts the valves on a water-stripping vacuum line that removes dissolved inorganic carbon from sea water. Nitrogen gas is mixed into the water to remove the carbon dioxide, which is then transfered to another vacuum line to make solid graphite for carbon-14 dating. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)