Isotopes
Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis, Annex VII: Glossary, written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and published by Cambridge University Press in 2023, defines isotopes as: ‘Atoms of the same chemical element that have the same the number of protons but differ in the number of neutrons. Some proton–neutron configurations are stable (stable isotopes), others are unstable undergoing spontaneous radioactive decay (radioisotopes). Most elements have more than one stable isotope. Isotopes can be used to trace transport processes or to study processes that change the isotopic ratio. Radioisotopes provide, in addition, time information that can be used for radiometric dating.’
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