Has a Biochem Undergrad Solved a Cosmic Radiation Mystery?

scibri writes "A few weeks ago, reports of a mysterious spike in carbon-14 levels in Japanese tree rings corresponding to the year 775 intrigued astronomers. Such a spike could only have been caused by a massive supernova or solar flare, but there was no evidence of either of these at that time. Until Jonathon Allen, a biochem undergrad at UC Santa Cruz, Googled it. He found a reference in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to a 'red crucifix' appearing in the sky in 774, and speculates that it could have been a supernova hidden behind a cloud of dust, which could mask the remnants of the exploded star from astronomers today."

Re:A few weeks ago in slashdot...

[scibri]

Despite the best efforts of a few of us on the online team here, Nature is still pretty 'old media'. So if someone wants credit for an idea, they have to get it touch with us directly!

Slashdot comment on June 4 predates podcast

[vossman77]

Interesting to me, is that in the linked article there is a slashdot comment with the "red crucifix" text discussed in this article.

http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2893343&cid=40208359 [slashdot.org]

The podcast that the student listened to was produced on June 7 and the slashdot comment was June 4. Hmm... to think user JustOK could have been in Nature.