A tiny shaving of enamel from the tooth of a long-dead zebra or a recently dead lion can be the puzzle pieces that help archaeologists piece together a picture of what Africa’s climate might have looked like during the time when our early ancestors were evolving on the African savannah.

Enamel in a person’s tooth holds the secret to what that person ate as a child. Bone tissue in the tibia shows someone’s diet over a lifetime. Their hair will show what the person ate in the last few months of their life. Putting this kind of tissue through isotopic analysis is contributing towards advances in human forensics. 

In poaching circles, cycads are for the plant community what rhinos are for wildlife. As the illegal trade continues apace, conservationists are adding isotopic analysis to the toolkit of measures to protect trees whose lineage goes back to the time of the dinosaurs.

The coppersmiths of ancient Zimbabwe sourced their ore from the same mineral-rich belts in sub-Saharan Africa that supply today’s mining industry. Modern isotope technology is allowing archaeologists to trace the precise locations of the ores they smelted and mixed, showing a complex trading network and technological exchange across the region, with Great Zimbabwe the economic engine room at the centre of it.

The illegal wildlife trade is a serious conservation threat on the African continent. Advances in isotope studies allow this technology to be used widely to counter animal trafficking. It can help trace an animal’s origins, map poaching hotspots, uncover wildlife trading fraud, or build a forensic timeline.

The weight of a water molecule’s parts can tell how it has travelled through a river basin. Other isotopes in a water sample can tell its age. A trip to South Africa’s Calitzdorp and Warmwaterberg hot springs reveals the secrets of long-haul groundwater travel.