[originaltext] You can tell the age of a tree by counting its tings. But the

You can tell the age of a tree by counting its tings. But these records of a tree’s life really say a lot more. Scientists are using tree tings to learn what’s been happening on the sun’s surface for the last ten thousand years. Each ring represents a year of growth. As the tree grows, it adds a layer to its trunk, taking up chemical elements from the air. By looking at the elements in the rings from a given year, scientists can tell what elements were in the air that year.
    Dr. Stevenson is analyzing one element, carbon—14, in rings from both living and dead trees. Some of the rings go back almost ten thousand years to the end of the Ice Age. When Stevenson followed the carbon--14 trail back in time, he found carbon—14 levels change with the intensity of solar burning. You see the sun has cycles. Sometimes it bums fiercely. At other times it’s relatively calm. During the sun’s violent periods, it throws off charged particles in fast moving streams, called solar winds. The particles interfere with the formation of carbon—14 on earth. When there is more solar wind activity, less carbon—14 is produced. Ten thousand years of tree rings show the carbon—14 level rises and falls about every four hundred and twenty years. The scientists concluded that solar wind activity must follow the same cycle.