is it possible to establish somebody's age?

[dellzeqq]

sort of like carbon dating, but closer to home. Can you take a sample of whatever and work out if someone is (say) 24 years old, or (say) thirty years old?

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Not quite, but apparently you can tell whether a child is under or over the age of 7 by looking to see if their duodenum is straight or kinked.

I doubt many people would be looking at the kid's small intestine though, it would be a lot easier to just ask them instead!

 

[ColinJ]

Apparently, if a corpse still has eyes and death occurred in the last 3 days, it is possible - link. Not so handy if the person is still alive though ...

 

[Fab Foodie]

Suzie having yet another 26th Birthday and you're getting suspicious?

 

[dellzeqq]

Suzie having yet another 26th Birthday and you're getting suspicious?

I'm thinking professional footballer....

Colin - that's really interesting. Thankyou

 

[growingvegetables]

Apparently a child under 5 years old cannot reach over their head with their left arm and hold the right ear. Or funnily enough, with their right arm to hold their left ear.

Handy to know if you're responsible for admissions to primary school in a country with poor birth registration levels.

 

[dellzeqq]

so there's not much to stop a 30 year old football player passing himself of as twentyfour?

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Apparently a child under 5 years old cannot reach over their head with their left arm and hold the right ear. Or funnily enough, with their right arm to hold their left ear.

Handy to know if you're responsible for admissions to primary school in a country with poor birth registration levels.

I thought it was 7, but anyway, what do I know?

 

[rikki]

Apparently they test asylum seekers [in Australia] who claim to be under 18 by examining an x-ray of their wrist bones.

IIRC the efficacy of this test is disputed by the asylum seeker supporters and parts of the medical profession.

 

[Aperitif]

You can tell the age of some folk simply by scanning the chip - it's located somewhere on the shoulder.

 

[summerdays]

Going back to the bones again ... I can't remember the details but I believe it is below a certain age whilst the bones are still growing they appear differently on X-ray (blacker?) at the ends of the bones.

I've looked up Wiki - and it refers to the Bone age - and explains far better than I could: Bone age

Not much good for someone in their 20's or 30's.

Now if you could get hold of their DNA isn't there something that gradually gets shorter (?Thalassines???) though it is influenced by other enviromental factors in the rate of shortening.

Easiest option would be to get hold of their birth certificate

 

[annedonnelly]

so there's not much to stop a 30 year old football player passing himself of as twentyfour?

A professional footballer playing in England (and semi-pros) are registered each year with the F.A. and the data they require includes their date of birth. So if he'd been playing for a number of years they should have records from each year with a consistent DOB. Don't know how quickly they'd spot errors.

If he's been in pro football for a while there should be stats about the clubs he's been with and for how long. If he's been on a club's books for 10 years it's unlikely he's only 24...

 

[Arch]

As an archaeaologist, I could tell you someone's age below around 18 with a moderate degree of accuracy, from bones and teeth, because of the relatively well understood and regular pattern of tooth eruption and bone epiphyseal fusion - although there can be differences of some months between individuals, and some factors allow greater precision than others. Above that it becomes more inaccurate, and the changes we look at are based more on environmental and social factors, like diet or level of physical activity, because then it's mostly based on wear and tear - worn teeth (much less with a modern soft diet as opposed to the rough diet of ancient people) and arthritic changes on the faces of the joints (more likely in people undertaking hard physical labour)

Of course, I'm more used to dealing with bones I can pick up and handle and examine closely. I'm not up to date on how much of this evidence is clearly visible on X-rays etc.

 

[Glenn]

Can't you just cut a leg off and count the growth rings?

 

[Pottsy]

How about a pop quiz?