Boutron, Claude

In his polar studies, Patterson analyzed such small traces of lead that, for 20 years, no other scientist could replicate his data. As the French glaciologist Claude Boutron noted in 1994, The difficulty of making these measurements was not fully appreciated at the time. With no attempt at diplomacy, Patterson said, It was beyond their ability by factors of thousands, or tens of thousands. Ten years later, Patterson and a graduate student, Amy Ng, used more sophisticated techniques on lead samples 100 times smaller than those he had analyzed in the 1960s and confirmed his earlier data. 

Claude F. Boutron and Clair C. Patterson. Lead Concentration Changes in Antarctic Ice during the Wisconsin/Holocene Transition. Nature. 323 (Sept. 18, 1986) 222-225. 

Claude F. Boutron et al. Decrease in anthropogenic lead, cadmium and zinc in Greenland snows since the late 1960s. Nature. 353 (Sept. 12, 1991) 153-156. 

Geologist Claude F. Boutron and colleagues discovers high amounts of lead in Greenland ice cores dating from Roman times, confirming widespread production and use of lead in this period. 

Hong, Sungmin, Jean-Pierre Candelone, Clair C. Patterson, and Claude F. Boutron. Greenland Ice Evidence of Hemispheric head Pollution Two Millennia Ago by Greek and Roman Civilizations. Science 265 (September 23, 1994) 1,841-1,843. The researchers analyzed an ice core from Greenland that covered a period from 3,000 to 500 years ago and found the concentration of lead was four times higher than natural conditions during the Roman era. 

Carlo Barbante, Clara Turetta, Gabriele Capodaglio, Paolo Cescon, Sungmin Hong, Jean-Pierre Candelone, Katja Van de Velde, Claude F. Boutron... 

My thanks to Claude Boutron for inviting me to participate in the challenge of high precision measurement of almost nothing in polar snow and ice and to the Australian Research Council and Australian Science Advisory Committee for their support in this venture which is improving our understanding of the Earth s present and past environments. 

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