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Scientists Date Corpses by Looking into Their Eyes
Posted by Addy Dugdale at 4:10 AM on February 26, 2008
A team of Danish researchers has discovered a way of dating dead bodies via the corpse's eye using a nuclear particle accelerator. The procedure, which measures the amount of a carbon isotope in the eye lens, has been made possible because of atomic weapons testing half a century ago. The technique only works for people born after 1950 and will only be valid until levels of the carbon isotype have returned to normal—probably 100 years. Here's how it works.
The carbon isotope, C-14, is present in all bodies born since the first atomic weapons tests took place. In the first couple of years of an individual's life, the isotope forms transparent proteins, or lens crystallines, which enable sight. These remain unchanged—rather like dental enamel— for the rest of a person's life. By measuring the level of C-14 in the person's eye, and comparing it to records of levels in the atmosphere, the corpse can be dated.
The team, from the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, thinks that, as well as being a forensic breakthrough, the method will be able to tell us more about the behaviour of cancerous cells.
"We think that carbon dating of proteins and other molecules in the body could be used to study when certain tissues are generated or regenerated," says Associate Professor Niels Lynnerup from the Dept of Forensic Sciences in Denmark. "This could, for example, be applied to cancer tissue and cancer cells. Calculating the amount of C-14 in these tissues could tell us when the cancerous tissue is formed and this could further our understanding of such diseases". [Telegraph]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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jak0b
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
@dukemang: No, everyone in Denmark has a portable nuclear particle accelerator. We consider them more as childrens toys than scientific instruments... remember Denmarks technology is lightyears ahead of america... ;)
jak0b
deeddawg
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
TheAdAgency wrote:
This sentence implies human sight is dependent upon the C-14 isotope that has only been around since 1950. You learn something new every day.
Hmm.. Maybe that's why everything from back then was in black and white? The C14 allowed us to see color! ;)
deeddawg
workingonyourinvoice
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
@yelraf: Who said you can't?
workingonyourinvoice
yelraf
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
But what fun is dating a corpse if you can't have sex with it?
yelraf
j4sk868
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
Igore. lol
j4sk868
Hiphopopotamus
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
This method works under the faulty assumption that we won't all be bombarded with C-14 molecules in a future nuclear apocalypse. Thanks, but no thanks, Science!
Hiphopopotamus
dukemang
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
Oh, and it only works on people who happen to die near a nuclear particle accelerator.
dukemang
baltwade
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
"The carbon isotope, C-14, is present in all bodies born since the first atomic weapons tests took place."
Carbon-14 is naturally occurring and has been around a long long long long time before 1950. C-14 is presence in all organic materials and is used extensively as basis for radiocarbon dating to date archaeological, geological samples. Hell it was discovered in the 1940's.
baltwade
stre
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
C-14 has actually be present in our bodies all along, since it's a naturally occuring isotope. what this does is tell you when a person was born by the ratio of C-14 to C-12 in the body, which has been consistently slowly decreasing back to normal levels since the spate of nuclear weapons testing. that ratio is captured when your eyes develop.
@baltwade: it tells you when they were born. which makes we wonder a bit how this will help in forensics, unless we're talking about an unrecognizable body and you're looking for how old the person is.
stre
droracle
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
Cool technique, but honestly all I could think was it has been too long since I've watched Young Frankenstein. That movie is a classic.
droracle
TheAdAgency
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
"The carbon isotope, C-14, is present in all bodies born since the first atomic weapons tests took place. In the first couple of years of an individual's life, the isotope forms transparent proteins, or lens crystallines, which enable sight."
This sentence implies human sight is dependent upon the C-14 isotope that has only been around since 1950. You learn something new every day.
TheAdAgency
ANoel
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
"The technique only works for people born after 1950 and will only be valid until levels of the carbon isotype have returned to normal-probably 100 years. "
...this implies that the US and a few others' atom bomb testing has measureably contaminated EVERYONE under the age of 58?! In the WHOLE world?!
NFW!!!
ANoel
bobman1235
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
Abby... Abby... Abby something.
bobman1235
nutbastard
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
...He vould have an enormous schwanzstucker...
nutbastard
baltwade
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
When you say, "...the corpse can be dated".
You mean how old the person was at the time they died and not how long the person has been dead, right?
baltwade
daftrok
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
Danka!
daftrok
frigg
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
whoops. posted YF before I saw the other responses.
frigg
frigg
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
Young Frankenstein?
frigg
Sixxtwo
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
@daftrok: Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks
Sixxtwo
nutbastard
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
@daftrok:
Young Frankenstein
nutbastard
Sixxtwo
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
Iiiiii aint got no body.....
Sixxtwo
daftrok
Posted 6:16 AM 26/2/08
What movie is that picture from?
daftrok
mdmadph
Posted 7:19 AM 26/2/08
It's too bad that carbon dating is a myth. It was obviously His noodly appendage making the results that these scientists found.
Ramen.
mdmadph
ps61318
Posted 8:14 AM 26/2/08
These must be some kind of vampire, hypnotic-gaze type scientists. At the same time a date in which all anyone does is gaze into someones eyes may not be too worthwhile. What about witty repartee, like the kind found here on Gizmodo? What's a date without that?
hmmph. I, for one, am unimpressed.
ps61318
citizen024
Posted 10:11 AM 26/2/08
the headline is disturbingly necrophilialy misleading.
citizen024
ab3
Posted 10:11 AM 26/2/08
Elevate me!
Here? Now?
Yes, yes raise the platform!
Oooo zzeee platform...
ab3
LastAndLeast
Posted 1:20 PM 26/2/08
Isn't Young Frankenstein in black and white? It's so weird to see that in color...
LastAndLeast
enerdream
Posted 11:39 PM 26/2/08
*smack! BAD SCIENTIST! NO! I said NO! Go back to you meaningful work or you'll have no ham sammich. Where's that micro-bigbang we were promised huh? NO HAM SAMMICH!
enerdream