Relationship at the heart of gentle way to age (6,6)
I believe the answer is:
carbon dating
'age' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'relationship at the heart of gentle way' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'relationship' could be 'bond' (I've seen this before) and 'bond' is found within the answer.
'at' could be 'in' (synonymous in some cases - eg at school, in school) and 'in' is located in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for carbon dating that I've seen before include "scientific technique" , "ageing process" , "The use of isotopes to determine age" , "Method for determining the age of old matter" , "Method of estimating age" .)