In 2003 the bone of the Starchild Skull was tested using a Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS) at the Royal Holloway University in London. This is a technology that bounces electrons off the bone, and by measuring the laser reflections is able to tell what elements (Carbon, Calcium, etc.) are present in what amounts. The normal human skull found with the Starchild was also tested to act as a control, and it yielded typical results. The Starchild Skull, however, revealed extremely high levels of Aluminium, a substance toxic to humans at such levels, as well as irregular levels of other minerals.

At the time, Dr. Ken Pye (no relation to Lloyd Pye) suggested that the Aluminium level could be the result of residue from the blade used to cut the bone. The blade was a standard rotary Dremel blade, and these are often rinsed in Aluminium as part of the production process. The human bone was cut with the same brand of blade (a new blade is used for each sample) and did not exhibit the same Aluminium spike, but it is possible that one blade had more contamination than the other, and we had no way to rule it out. As such, the result has been left in doubt until testing can be repeated.

Aluminium is not a significant component of human bone, and even at low levels is fatal. There are medical cases where humans have accumulated too much Aluminium in their bodies (a notable case was in the UK in the 1970s when dialysis patients were being treated using water too high in Aluminium), but even these levels were far lower than those reported in the Starchild Skull bone. The graph below shows the levels of elements recorded by the SEM.