Physicists Help Solve Cold Cases

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Cold cases heat up through Lawrence Livermore approach to identifying remains

Bruce Bucholz

Inside Science Buzzwords:

1. Carbon-14 (C-14) - An unstable form of carbon that is used for radiocarbon dating.
2. Radiocarbon dating - A process that can measure the amount of C-14 in a sample to estimate the sample’s age.
3. Accelerator - A device that speeds up objects such as electrons and ions (electrically charged atoms and molecules).
4. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry - A technique that identifies the different kinds of atoms and molecules in a sample by using a particle accelerator to separate the sample’s various atoms and molecules by their different masses.
5. Mass - The amount of matter in an object; the most common form of carbon (carbon-12 ) has less mass than carbon-14.