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More than 80,000 American service members remain missing from previous wars, most from World War II. When remains are found, decomposition often makes identification difficult—but not impossible.

Even without a name, fingerprints or facial features, our history leaves indelible marks on us, locked in the atoms of the toughest structures in our bodies: the enamel of our teeth. Subtle differences in tooth chemistry could help determine the identity of fallen soldiers and other human remains—if we can learn to read that history.

Now, a collaboration between geography and dentistry researchers aims to find ways to map a person's remains to the region where they grew up, based on slight differences in tooth enamel that are determined by the composition of local tap water.

While the researchers' immediate goal is to help identify fallen soldiers, the project has the potential to strengthen the field of forensic investigation as a whole, according to Gabe Bowen, professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah and the lead on Project FIND-EM.

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