New Forensic Technique-Pulse Bombing

[Kat]

Posting this for members interested in forensics.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/n...que+improves+accuracy+when/7387709/story.html

October 13, 2012

By Randy Boswell, Postmedia News

‘Pulse-bomb dating’ technique improves accuracy when identifying remains

The bomb-pulse technique takes advantage of the fact that when atomic testing was conducted during the 1950s and 1960s, worldwide concentrations of carbon-14 increased at specific increments that can be matched to chemical signatures in organic material.

The bomb-pulse data, he added, can be particularly useful in distinguishing between “historical remains” and more recent cold cases “where obvious ways of making identifications aren’t available.”

“this case study highlights the enormous potential of these combined techniques for ‘cold case’ identifications and other challenging forensic contexts dating to the last half century.”

(also mass burials)