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ESR dating
Curtis Withers (cwithers@ccs.carleton.ca)
Tue, 28 Mar 1995 18:31:30 GMT
Hello everyone,
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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Curtis Withers
Carleton University
Ottawa, ON (in the vast and beautiful country of Canada)
Email address: cwithers@ccs.carleton.ca
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