His early exploration of this idea, building up two-dimensional images of the soft interiors of organisms by spectroscopy, was performed on green peppers or on clams which his small daughter collected on the beach.
Using a combination of modern physics tools--including three-dimensional, high-resolution X-ray, radiocarbon dating with accelerator mass spectrometry, and infrared spectroscopy--the researchers analysed the tooth to determine the age and composition of a resinous filling detected inside.