Radioactivity: Our Forensic Friend

In this recent article, New Scientist reports that a British scientist, Stuart Black, has discovered how to use radioactive decay to determine the time of death of murder victims.

Black is using isotopes with shorter half-lives than carbon-14. He has found that the most useful are lead-210 and polonium-210, with half-lives of 22 years and 134 days respectively.

In addition to being able to establish time of death, Black is also able to determine where a victim lived by comparing the absolute and relative amounts of various radioactive isotopes in the victim’s bones.