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CSI: Pirate

From a few bits of wood, researchers hoped to prove the presence of a notorious criminal. The wood came from the bottom of the Atlantic, off the coast of North Carolina. The criminal? The pirate Blackbeard. Researchers at the National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry facility at WHOI prepared those samples of wood from a shipwreck for radiocarbon dating to determine its age. The wood was believed to be part of Queen Anne’s Revenge, the 18th century flagship of the famous pirate’s fleet. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)