Our happy-hour fact to amaze your drinking buddies with.

How do you determine the age of an unidentified corpse anywhere in the world? By using the radioactive particles released into the air by nuclear weapons testing, which are subsequently ingested into the body.

In the 1950s, nuclear weapons testing released large amounts of the carbon isotope C-14 into the atmosphere. Since then, the level has declined year by year.

By using a new method of comparing two isotope levels, scientists can now date a corpse's age far more accurately than previously possible.

The technique only works on people born after 1950, and it will only be useful for as long as C-14 remains in the atmosphere, which is currently estimated at 100 years.

You might also just check if the corpse was carrying a drivers license at the time of death.