More Wine, Less Time

French scientists have devised a way of using particle accelerators to authenticate vintage wines, one of France’s top research bodies said this week.

The new method tests the age of the glass in wine bottles by analyzing X-rays emitted when the bottles are placed under ion beams produced by a particle accelerator, the National Center for Scientific Research, known by the French acronym CNRS, said in a statement. The results can be compared with a database containing detailed information on 80 bottles from the Bordeaux region from the 19th century to the present day.

Via msnbc