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Nuclear Testing Helps to Sniff Out Counterfeit Whiskies

by Peter Mychalcewycz on May 7, 2009 at 09:39 AM



Apparently, something positive came out humanity's insane urge to produce and proliferate nuclear arms over the past century.

Carbon-dating has been used by researchers in myriad scientific endeavors, and it turns out that nuclear testing has made the process that much more effective, according to Scientific American. Or, more effective at determining the age of an expensive bottle of whisky, anyway.

Researchers at England's Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit have found that barley grown in the Nuclear Era contains a higher level of carbon 14 than barley grown before the late '40s and early '50s (The first nuclear weapons test was in 1945.). Accordingly, any whisky distilled since 1950, or so, bears an increased level of carbon 14. This hallmark make it easy for researchers to distinguish the poseurs from genuinely old vintages.

Vintage whisky is a big business, and this is just another way to ensure that people are getting what they pay (a lot) for. We can only hope that, for the sake of all the top-shelf bourbon drinkers out there, researchers will soon be able to date corn as accurately as they can barley. [From: Scientific American and Trinity Atomic Web Site]

Tags: alcohol, drinking, nuclear, top, weird, whisky

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