Your Teeth Are Time Capsules. Here's What They Say

Guest: Tanya M. Smith, Associate Professor, Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia; Author of “The Tales Teeth Tell” We pay to have them scraped, filled and pulled. We obsess over their whiteness. When we’re little, we wiggle and twist them so the Tooth Fairy will visit. But did you know your teeth are time capsules? Every day of your childhood is etched into the crowns and roots of your first molars. Tanya Smith has been crucial to our understanding of how this works. She’s spent her entire career decoding “The Tales Teeth Tell,” which is, incidentally, the name of her new book.