Radioactive Carbon-14 in the Tooth Used to Determine the Age

According to Reuters, tests of nuclear bombs conducted in the 1950s have had an unexpected benefit for forensic scientists.

Jonas Frisen, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, has developed a method to determine the age of an individual by looking at the amount of radioactive carbon-14 in the tooth.

When nuclear testing began in 1955 it increased the amounts of carbon-14 in the atmosphere. Regardless of where the tests were done the levels very quickly became uniform around the globe, so the technique can be used to determine the age of people around the world.

Tooth enamel is formed at distinct times during childhood and contains only 0.4 percent carbon. So concentrations of it in teeth reflect the amount in the atmosphere when the enamel was formed.

"It is a simple method to determine the age of an individual by measuring the level of the compound in teeth," Frisen said in an interview.

The researchers, who reported their findings in the science journal Nature, said using the technique is no more difficult than doing a blood test.


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