Sam Wasser, Biology Research Professor and Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Forensic Science (CEFS), was featured in an article in BBC on how scientists are leveraging natural, biochemical “clocks” to more precisely estimate the time of death. Wasser has analyzed radiocarbon dating results from ivory samples as part of efforts to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade with CEFS.

Excerpt from the BBC article:

Forensic analyses often rely on the"bomb pulse" method of radiocarbon dating, which is possible due to the hundreds of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests that occurred during the 1950s and 1960s.

The blasts sent vast quantities of additional carbon-14 into the air, but these artificially high levels have been falling ever since. And so, by comparing carbon-14 measurements with that downward-sloping curve, it is possible to date materials from the mid-20th Century onwards very precisely – to within a year or so, in some cases.

"I don't know of any other technique that comes close to that," says wildlife biologist Sam Wasser at the University of Washington. "It's extraordinarily useful."

Wasser has analysed radiocarbon dating results from ivory samples as part of efforts to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade. The data can show whether the elephants died before or after the 1989 ban on ivory sales, whatever traffickers may claim.

One man jailed on this evidence is Edouodji Emile N'Bouke, convicted in Togo in 2014. While DNA tests uncovered the geographic origin of the ivory he trafficked, radiocarbon dating showed exactly when the elephants were poached. These two strands of evidence were "the smoking gun critical to bringing N'Bouke to justice", the US State Department later said.

Read the full article on BBC News.