The Secrets Our Teeth Hide 

February 26th, 2024

Now, in today's episode, we will be talking about dead things, specifically people. I know it sounds morbid because it is, but what we can learn from the dead is important.

Some of the greatest minds in history are dead, Einstein, Aristotle, Shakespeare, and even Steve Jobs, and the main way we would learn from them would be their works, E equals MC squared, the five canons of rhetoric, Twelfth Night, and the iPhone. Maybe when I die, people will listen to this podcast. But one could argue that scientists learn more from dead bodies than we do their work.

Metallical examiners commonly take autopsies to determine the cause of someone's death. In the case of King Tut, scientists had to figure out why he died. In general, inspecting dead bodies can help solve a mystery, learn about a disease, and teach us more about history.

But studying the remains of other people can also teach us more about ourselves. I recently read an article proposing the idea of teeth as human time capsules. Professor of anthropology at Ohio State University, Debbie Gutali-Steinberg, published an article talking about how, as she puts it, fossil teeth are tiny time capsules that provide insights into human evolution, including our diverse diets, extended childhoods, and other unique features of our species.

One of the most interesting things Steinberg-Magnussians is how scientists discovered what ancient humans ate from their tooth enamel. In short, plants have proportions of carbon isotopes in their cells, and chemists know which plants have more or less of these isotopes in them. As the tooth enamel forms, it locks the ratio of these carbon isotopes into its mineral structure and remains unchanged for a long period of time.

Tooth enamel can also show us a person's age by looking at tooth development at the time of death. Like trees, tooth enamel has rings and grows in lines. Counting these growth lines also gives anthropologists insight into the living conditions of ancient humans, as it has been shown that things such as living through immensely stressful events results in the disruption of enamel growth.

Dental anthropologists say that by analyzing enamel chemistry, we can see who grew up vegetarian versus not, and they can extract bacterial DNA from calcified plaque.

And upon further research of my own, I've discovered that the enamel is an amazing substance. Along with being able to tell scientists so much about the human body, it is the most durable substance in the human body acting as the oyster to a jewel for forensic scientists, dental pulp.

According to the National Library of Medicine in France, one of the most valuable sources of DNA for forensic scientists, dental pulp is the best source of reliable genetic DNA. To quote the National Library of Medicine, the tooth is the most valuable source to extract DNA since it is a sealed box except for its apical entrance. This prompted the investigation of various human tissues as potential sources for genetic evidentiary material.

Recently, teeth have been subject to DNA studies as the dental hard tissue physically encloses the pulp and offers anatomical configuration of great durability. Moreover, when morphologically evaluated, even a single tooth provides valuable information regarding the individual to whom the tooth belongs. End quote.

Just from studying the tooth exit enamel, scientists can gather so much information about our species. But when taking this information into consideration, a new realm of discovery is open to us. Maybe the best way to learn about some of our most impactful predecessors is not only through their work or dead bodies, but what if we could study their DNA?

The only thing stopping us from taking this task in hand is ourselves. Either we have not thought about it or we are hesitant to take it upon us. But this hesitation is the obstacle standing between us and greatness.

If we stop ourselves from the discovery, from innovation, from knowledge concerning ourselves and our predecessors, we do not do this. Yet in the wise words of Niccolo Machiavelli, there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, and more unlikely to succeed than to take in hand the introduction of a new order of things. So Dr. Estelle Lazar, a forensic archaeologist from the University of Sydney, tells us ABC News that teeth decay easily in life, but once death occurs, it stops.

Teeth tend to survive well, some for tens of thousands of years. Now, some of our greatest minds died tens of thousands of years ago, and arguably more importantly, so did some of the most accomplished people. Now, we could easily study the genetic makeup of some of our smartest minds and hunt for similarities, proving whether or not intelligence is in fact an innate trait, whether it's nature versus nurture.

But we could do more. We could study if some people are genetically predisposed to success. Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar are two historical figures who I think are some of the most inspirational characters in history, and who I am not ashamed to admit are probably my idols, competing with my parents for the top spots of most influential people in my life.

If I had the permission and the resources to study the genetic makeup of these two men, I would take it in a heartbeat. Alexander's body is currently in the Alexandria's communal mausoleum, and Caesar's body lies in the temple of Divinus Julius in Rome. Along with many people, I have no qualms about sticking my gloved hands into a dead body, and if I have to put long dead teeth into a ziplock bag, then so be it, because the potential of this experiment is immense.

By being able to extract the DNA held inside tooth enamel, it would be possible to use it in order to create genotypically identical versions of Alexander the Great and Caesar. Then by doing so, we can create two versions of each clone and insert the embryo into a mother who wants a child. Now the interesting part of this would be the families the children will be raised in.

One of each clone would be birthed with a golden spoon in his mouth, growing up with quality, educations, and high standing role models, similar to the upbringing of these two men who were tutored as Roman nobility at the time. The second embryo would then be birthed into a different family, with different upbringing of the two historical figures. They will be birthed into an average middle class family and attempt average public school and have a typical upbringing.

Now the most crucial key to this would be that the boys never know that they are the clones of these famous men, because this knowledge would either A, make them believe that they will never live up to the expectation set upon them, or B, motivate them to be like these men. Both of these are bad alternatives because the purpose of this experiment is to study if the greatness and ambition harbored by these famous men are conned by nature versus nurture, and by studying the maturation of these four boys throughout their lives from a distance, we can begin to learn to answer this question. Now, most upsettingly, we cannot clone humans because, and I quote, that the production of genetically identical beings violates the dignity and integrity of human beings both as individuals and as members of the human species.

Now, the main thing is that the fathers of these boys will be dead, and they will be born into loving families with no knowledge of their predecessors. During their life, they will be valued for their value as a human being and never researched out of the womb except by a disguised researcher acting as a lifelong therapist tasked to record the intellectual maturity of the boys with the permission of their parents and which they reach adulthood themselves. They will be told of their genetic predecessors when they hit the peak of their career, where they can then consent to the release of their findings of this lifetime study, not violating the integrity or dignity of any individuals.

We could take in hand the difficult. Conduct the perilous and implement the unlikely. To begin this study, allowing us to learn more about ourselves as human beings.

This is more than just biology, more than neuroscience, more than genetics. This is anthropology, the study of man.

And this study of our species, imperative to understand ourselves as a species and better ourselves as a people, so we can learn about our tendencies, our faults, and our predispositions, so that future generations can learn from these findings and act upon them.

And who knows, I have a field trip to Rome coming up, and I might just take a midnight excursion to the home of the Venus Julius Kaiser. Anyways, I thank you for listening to this episode of Webtorium Conversations, and urge you to tune in to our future episodes, follow this channel, and comment on topics I could cover. In order to learn more about Webtorium's advancements, follow our Instagram at Webtorium, and be sure to check out our website, webtorium.com.

I'm glad to say that this summer, we will have interesting updates on our Instagram in the realm of archaeology and the study of man, as I take a trip to study the early Native American tribes in Iowa. So be sure to follow us there, as well as recommend this podcast to your friends and family. And I will end this conversation with a favorite quote of mine.

Toil and risk are the price of glory, but it is a lovely thing to live with courage and die leaving an everlasting fame.

-Alexander the Great.