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From: peter@sugar.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.med,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Dating age of humans
Message-ID: <763@sugar.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-Sep-87 05:22:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: sugar.763
Posted: Wed Sep 16 05:22:14 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Sep-87 07:46:07 EDT
References: <26333@sun.uucp> <1960@kitty.UUCP> <3836@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <2001@kitty.UUCP>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 13
Keywords: Ageing Human Carbon
Xref: utgpu sci.med:2816 sci.bio:597

In article <2001@kitty.UUCP>, larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) writes:
> In article <694@sugar.UUCP>, peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
> > Couln't you do some sort of radioisotope testing on tooth enamel,
> > and at least get the age since dentition?
> 1.	Carbon-14 has a half-life of approximately 5,730 years...
> 2.	... some migration of comtemporary C14 into the enamel,...

Carbon-14 isn't the only radioisotope used in this sort of thing, is it? What
about shorter-lived isotopes that (while not longevious enough for archeology)
would decay fast enough to be useful here?
-- 
-- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
--                 'U`      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Not seismo!soma (blush)