A reviewer of Howard's article replies to Bartelt.
Karen Bartelt’s letter is not a fair evaluation of the William A. Howard paper. There are educational advantages of getting students involved in the scientific analysis of even controversial topics like the potassium–argon method of dating minerals.
The situation is complex. As a general principle of chemical kinetics it is desirable to identify all the reaction products. However this is seldom practical for nuclear reactions, and accurate radiometric dating is possible in spite of this. Howard’s grocery analogy is okay, but if one counts the empty boxes in the trash and gets 2000 plus or minus 40 because there are other sources of boxes present in the dumpster, counting boxes will not be much help.
I trust that student discussion of the potassium–argon method of dating minerals can be valuable in teaching the scientific method. I am also sure that radiometric dating of minerals will stand up to open-minded scrutiny. It is true that some individuals are raising questions about dating with the avowed purpose of placing evolution in question, but this is not the thrust of the Howard paper as it appears now in the Journal of Chemical Education.
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