Dental calculus, the hard deposit the dentist scrapes off your teeth, is the only part of your body that fossilizes during your lifetime.
Subscribe to Illumina: http://bit.ly/IlluminaYouTube
Dental calculus captures the microbes and food particles in your mouth and provides a record of diet and dental health. Ancient calculus is a time capsule that reveals how human health and diet have changed over time.
Links:
http://www.illumina.com/science/education/adventures-in-genomics.html
Christina Warinner at the University of Oklahoma -- http://cas.ou.edu/christina-warinner
Christina Warinner's blog -- http://christinawarinner.com/
For more info on applications in microbiology --
http://www.illumina.com/areas-of-interest/microbiology.html
For more info on applications in other areas
http://www.illumina.com/science/publications/publications-review.html
The Adventures in Genomics video series hosted by the Illumina Scientific Affairs team. Embark on a fascinating journey, exploring amazing discoveries and meeting the scientists behind the breakthroughs who are helping us better understand ourselves and the world around us.
See all our Adventures in Genomics videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKRu7cmBQlah8wHBByBXEO0dNW-xNvvX_