During the past year several laboratories have reported use of mass spectrometry to improve some aspects of radiocarbon dating. Van de Graaff or cyclotron accelerators are used to separate C₁₄ from other carbon isotopes; C₁₄ then is measured directly. Range of age dating is extended to ca 100, 000 years from the present practical limit of 60,000 years. Sample requirement is reduced to the order of milligrams. Oxford Research Laboratory and U. California, Berkeley (Chem. Dept.) also are jointly working on an enrichment project: the carbon sample is chemically converted to formaldehyde, which has a highly structured UV spectrum. The H 2CO then is photolyzed with a tunable UV laser at wavelengths corresponding to H 2C₁₄O, and the CO product collected is found to be enriched ca 100fold in C₁₄. A Van de Graaf is to be used to separate this product. It is believed that one of the procedures can be made competitive in cost with the present decay-counting method. -- AATA