Carbon Dating & The Shroud of Turin

BlackTyranny writes "The Shroud of Turin, carbon dated in 1978 by a team of scientists, may be far older than originally thought. Raymond N. Rogers, a retired chemist from the University of California-operated Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, part of the original team, used samples given to him in 2003 from the Cardinal of Turin's scientific advisor. Roger's contends that the carbon dating might be faulty because "the people who cut the sample didn't do a very good job of characterizing the samples," that is, taking samples from many areas of the cloth." I think the shroud 'Patch' may be made of the big foot suit. ;)

Comments

Damn Priests

[CmdrGravy]

I think it is the people who look after the Shroud ( some Church or other ) who decide whether or not people can take samples from the shroud and I think it's also their call which pieces of the shroud are taken.

I think they are very reluctant to cut bits off the shroud so it's unlikley they will allow any other bits which may be original and not patched on later to be carbon dated.

I think a fair summary of what has happened so far it this

- Scientists allowed to take sample for carbon dating and shroud owners specify which bits are taken and how much.
- Scientists date pieces of shroud they have been given and prove those bit's of shroud are no where near as old as people expect they might be
- Church says "Well, those bit's were just patches added later. Looking at the rest of the shroud the type of fabric used is definitely a lot older"
- Church says "No, you can't have any more samples for dating."