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ESR datingCurtis Withers (cwithers@ccs.carleton.ca)Tue, 28 Mar 1995 18:31:30 GMT
I was wondering if some people on this newsgroup would be kind enough to help me out with something. I'm doing a projuct for university, about a new dating technique called ESR dating. It is being widely used by geology professors at McMaster University. What they do is date fossils of animal teeth. They use nuclear power to find out how much radiation is in the teeth. The more radiation, the older the tooth. Then they can use this information to date human remains in the same stratum. Apparently, this method has been used to date fossils over a million years old, and so now these geologists believe they can help resolve age old questions concerning human evolution. They have been both re-dating old fossils and dating new fossils with this technique. I would like to know what other people in the field think of this. My two main concerns are a) about their claim to it being accurate for such a long period of time and b) the redating of old fossils. I want to know if it's possible to open up a whole new series of debates rather than solving debates by redating fossils and possibly bringing accepted truths into contention. Please e-mail me back at your earliest convenience. Include a little information about yourself and your work. I just want to get support of or opposition to the McMaster geologists to flesh out my project. Thank you very much, Curtis Withers
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