Thermochimica Acta
Thermochimica Acta is an international, scientific, peer-reviewed "journal concerned with all aspects of thermoanalytical and calorimetric methods and their application to experimental chemistry, physics, biology and engineering," according to its website. It is published by Elsevier, the largest publisher of scientific journals.
In 2005, a very significant paper was published in Thermochimica Acta (Vol. 425, pages 189-194). It was written by Raymond N. Rogers, a chemist from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of California. Rogers concluded that the Shroud is much older than the carbon 14 tests had suggested. The abstract of the paper reads:
Preliminary estimates of the kinetics constants for the loss of vanillin from lignin indicate a much older age for the cloth than the radiocarbon analyses. The radiocarbon sampling area is uniquely coated with a yellow–brown plant gum containing dye lakes. Pyrolysis-mass-spectrometry results from the sample area coupled with microscopic and microchemical observations prove that the radiocarbon sample was not part of the original cloth of the Shroud of Turin. The radiocarbon date was thus not valid for determining the true age of the shroud.
- What prompted Ray Rogers to re-examine the carbon dating problem?
- Carbon dating in 1988
- What caused Ray Rogers to change his mind about the carbon dating?