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Here’s how tree ring dating, known to scientists as dendrochronology, works. If you cut a tree down today, it’s straightforward to count the rings inwards, starting from the tree’s outside. Hence the sequence of the rings in a tree cross-section is like a message in Morse code formerly used for sending telegraph messages; dot-dot-dash-dot-dash in the Morse code, wide-wide-narrow-wide-narrow in the tree ring sequence. Actually, the tree ring sequence is even more diagnostic and richer in information than the Morse code, because trees actually contain rings spanning much different width, rather than the Morse code choice between dot and dash. Tree ring specialists(known as dendrochronologists) proceed by noting the sequence of wider and narrower rings in a tree cut down in a known recent year, and also noting the sequences in beams from trees cut down at various times in the past. In that way, dendrochronologists have constructed tree ring records extending back for thousands of years in some parts of the world. A bonus of dendrochronology is that the width and substructure of each ring reflect the amount of rain and the season at which the rain fell during that particular year. Thus, tree ring studies also allow one to reconstruct the past climate.