Breakthrough Gives 3-D Vision of Dawn of Life

butterwise writes "MSNBC reports that a new scanning technique could revolutionize paleontology. The new technique is allowing researchers a virtual dissection of half-billion-year-old fossilized embryos." From the article: "The Chinese, Swedish, Swiss and British researchers on Donoghue's team used a 1,640-foot-wide (500-meter-wide) particle accelerator in Switzerland to scan the minute fossils, and then fed the information into a computer that generated complete 3-D images of the internal structures in fine detail."

Comments

Spiffy, but...

[ackthpt]

Spiffy, but how they going to get one of these things out into the field?

I suppose they must really want to, or the owners of this particle accelerator are very cool with, see what's inside

there's a little sticker on this one, it says Ant-Hill Inside

Re:Spiffy, but...

[counterfriction]

What are you talking about "get it out in the field"? Its research, not "Particle acclerator 3d microscopic embryo scanner, order yours today!"

Re:Spiffy, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Tiny fossils are easy to get back to the lab, unlike, say, a multi-metre-long Tyrannosaurus rex, which takes a big excavation.

The 3D reconstruction of fossils isn't new. That's been done for, oh, probably close to 100 years. In the early 20th century, it was done by grinding down a fossil specimen millimetre by millimetre, sketching or photographing each surface, and then putting together a wax or paper model of each section until the 3D shape is reconstructed. It's been done for everything from fossil plants to fish and other vertebrates. Very laborious work.

More recently, people do the same thing, but take a digital picture of the sections and use software to assemble a 3D volume and select and render parts of it. If the object is relatively large (say, centimetres in size and larger), it can alternatively be subjected to medical CAT and other types of non-destructive 3D imaging techniques. This is routine for specimens such as dinosaur skulls, in order to see the interior without destroying the specimen. If the fossil is small and transparent, 3D imaging can be done with laser scanning confocal microscopy. But opaque, small (say, require the destructive serial sectioning method, meaning you have a nice, scientifically valuable 3D reconstruction at the end of the procedure, but no specimen anymore.

The new part in this technique is therefore the *non-destructive* 3D reconstruction of such tiny fossil specimens. That's where the particle accelerator becomes necessary to get sufficient resolution to be useful. This is much higher resolution than typical 3D medical imaging. The general technique isn't that unusual, because it has existed for years too. It is the application to microfossils that is relatively new (Nature registration required to view that last article).

Oh, and if people are wondering what "penis worms" are (the jokes are piling up by now), the technical term is Priapulida. More details at the linked page.

Yeah, I know. I'm spoiling the fun.

Did anyone else doublecheck the URL

[Anti_Climax]

...When they read the photo summary that mentioned the "Penis Worm"?

That'll teach me to RTFA.

Re:Did anyone else doublecheck the URL

[porkmusket]

I think it's awesome they could've called it a Priapulida but went with penis worm. That's some good reportin'!

Re:Did anyone else doublecheck the URL

[LunaticTippy]

I thought "Penis Worm" sounded bogus, so I looked it up and found a limerick:

ancalagon by mike scholtes

In the lagan from Cambrian seas,
There's a dragon that's catching some z's.
Though ancalagon's gone,
Its priapulid spawn
Are still dodging extinction with ease.

(an-KAL-a-gon) A Cambrian priapulid (penis worm) found preserved in the Burgess Shale, ancalagon was apparently named after a dragon (Great Worm) in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Priapulids burrow tail-first into the sea floor with their mouth-parts exposed. A priapulid feeds by everting its gut, fastening onto soft-bodied prey, and then pulling gut and prey back down into its buried body. Lagan (sometimes spelled ligen or lagend) is a term from salvage law referring to goods that have sunk to the sea floor but are marked for recovery. Here it is metaphorically applied to fossils.

Re:Did anyone else doublecheck the URL

[spun]

Or how about the quote halfway down?

"The results are truly orgasmic," Donoghue said.

What do you know, I get the same results from my penis worm.

Re:Did anyone else doublecheck the URL

[klaun]

~I am the King of the Echo People!~

~It's a hair supplement.~

~He was a good cat!~

Re:Did anyone else doublecheck the URL

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you think the Penis Bird evolved from?

Re:Did anyone else doublecheck the URL

[dan828]

Mud eating penis worms, and we don't have better jokes? Slashdot has really gone down hill....

Here's a phrase you'll never again see on MSNBC.

[!ramirez]

From the article...

"The results are truly orgasmic," Donoghue said.

The whole embryo thing makes that funny on so many levels.

what?

[Anonymous Coward]

A series of images, created using a new scanning technique, shows the interior or fossil embryos of an ancient relative of the penis worm known as Markuelia. The creature lived in China and Siberia in the Cambrian Period.


Markuelia? I call mine Ivan the Terrible.

Did they say "Penis"?

[Sebastopol]

"...shows the interior or fossil embryos of an ancient relative of the penis worm known as Markuelia."

Sorry, but I'm too immature for this science thing.

Tee hee.

Re:Here's a phrase you'll never again see on MSNBC

[Pfhreak]

The whole embryo thing makes that funny on so many levels.

Not to mention that the caption for the first image mentions a "penis worm".

Re:Here's a phrase you'll never again see on MSNBC

[Joebert]

I looked for the "actual" wording, I thought for sure it was going to say,

"The results are truly organic"

I'll be damned if Donoghue didn't just have an orgasam though.

They combine the following into one article...

[skogs]

"ancient relative of the penis worm"

"The results are truly orgasmic," Donoghue said.

I am definitely not old enough to read this. In fact, I don't think I ever will be. Penis worm, and Orgasmic. They should never be together.

Re:They combine the following into one article...

[sonicattack]

Penis worm, and Orgasmic. They should never be together.

Aw, come on .. How do you think little cute penis worm embryos are made?

Re:They combine the following into one article...

[Anonymous Coward]

They should never be together

Uhm, just because your penis worm can't make a girl orgasmic, doesn't mean it's true for everybody. At least, that's what your girlfriend told me last night. Well, she didn't tell me per se, but she implied it with her endless animal-like moans and grunts.

*rimshot* (and by rimshot, I mean RIM SHOT, buddy.. *splat*).

Re:They combine the following into one article...

[thatoneguy_jm]

Penis worm, and Orgasmic. They should never be together.

Oh yes, they should be together. They should be together every day.

Re:Here's a phrase you'll never again see on MSNBC

[siriuskase]

orgasmic

You are absolutely right. I had my doubts, but then I read the article.

Well, how long will we need it?

[pimpimpim]

Since apparently there's even a creationist museum now in kentucky, where people try to show how fossils were put in the earth to mislead us all or whatever these crazy people believe. Let's hope that generations after us still get to learn actual scientific foundations on paleontology.

Re:Well, how long will we need it?

[Anonymous Coward]

You obviously have *no idea* what creation scientists believe.

Re:Well, how long will we need it?

[Achromus]

That's not surprising. When someone proves what they say wrong, they grasp at straws again. I doubt most creationists know the details of what they believe, other than that God created everything using poof magic.

Thank God

[Anonymous Coward]

we have evolved since the cambrien period.

From TFA: Markuelia must be most closely related to a modern group of marine invertebrates known as the penis worms, based on the number of teeth it has and the way they are arranged.

Nanotechnology the next step?

[Travoltus]

Will they be able to scan these things in the future using some kind of nanotech viewing device? Nanoscopic devices with all kinds of testing equipment, exploring microscopic things, could be like ants touring a parking lot; instead of us zooming in, they're zooming out.

I also imagine nanites being less destructive, what with being able to slip in between even molecules without having to "measure with microscope, mark with sharpie, cut with ace" (relatively speaking).

Re:Nanotechnology the next step?

[Anonymous Coward]

Will they be able to scan these things in the future using some kind of nanotech viewing device? Nanoscopic devices with all kinds of testing equipment, exploring microscopic things, could be like ants touring a parking lot; instead of us zooming in, they're zooming out.

No.

Re:Nanotechnology the next step?

[Peet42]

I also imagine nanites being less destructive, what with being able to slip in between even molecules

Well, what an imagination you have! What are *your* nanites built out of that they can slip between molecules without disturbing them...? (Hint: The next thing smaller than a molecule is an atom. Single atoms aren't nanites, and when you stick several together you have a molecule...)

Re:Nanotechnology the next step?

[Anonymous Coward]

Welllllll... if the object is small enough, it can slip between two of anything. If a molecule is two atoms (which the most basic molecule is), then something smaller can slip between that, depending on how tightly the atoms are packed together.But tehn nanites are 10 times bigger than atoms.

Re:Nanotechnology the next step?

[Oligonicella]

One nice thing about imaginations. They let you imagine things that can't be done. Like slip a macromolecular nanobot in between the smaller molecules of living cells.

This isnt that new

[Hellken242]

This technique isnt anyhting new. I work in electron tomography and produce 3d images with resolution on teh nanometer scale. There are many different types of tomogrpahy that have been used for decades: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomography/>

so let me get this straight

[RelliK]

These guys were studying "penis worm" and came to the conclusion that "the results are truly orgasmic". You know, you could have done that without the particle accelerator...

3D dawn of life.

[HoboMaster]

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to Spore. Glad to hear the rest of /. agrees.

Re:Here's a phrase you'll never again see on MSNBC

[MillionthMonkey]

Hey, when's Bush going to ban studying these embryos?

I hope he gives a press conference with a bunch of adopted embryo velociraptors on stage behind him. After all it's not like they wouldn't have time to re-evolve before his next press conference.

Non-damaging?

[Tired and Emotional]

I wonder if this really does not damage the fossil. Seems like they are pumping quite a lot of energy in there. Aren't there potential issues from heating? Can someone with expertise give us the details?

Even if it does do damage, its no doubt less than caused by dissolving off the rock, and then looking at the fossil. I am just curious as to whether it is really totally non-invasive.

Re:Non-damaging?

[cnettel]

Heisenberg called. He wants your insight back.

Anyway, I think it would be quite harmless for fossilized structures, as those minerals are simply quite stable. Even the odd ionization is most likely to just revert after a while. If we would ever want to survey what miniscule remains there might be of actual organic material, then that's a completely different thing. For most fossils, that's completely out of the question anyway.

Re:Non-damaging?

[leonidas]

Although I don't do microtomography myself, I am a synchrotron scientist. I've managed to convince my boss that I qualify as "someone with expertise". ;-) Minerals are quite robust when exposed to x-rays -- even from a highly intense, highly brilliant source like the synchrotron in Switzerland used for this experiment. There is not, in fact, much power put on the sample in one of these experiment. It's on the order of miliwatts, maybe tens of miliwatts, so the sample does not heat up at all. The dominant interaction, indeed the interaction used to probe the fossils in this experiment, is the interaction of a photon and an electron tightly bound to some atom. This interaction is very short-lived and rarely changes the chemistry of the sample. The thing that is actually measured is a secondary emission of a photon that is a by-product of the primary interaction. While not 100% non-invasive, the photons are, in fact, almost completely non-damaging. Indeed, that is one of the primary benefits of x-ray tomography. After the x-ray guys are done, the sample is in the same state as when they started.

If you poke around the web sites of any of the synchrotrons (google for them: in the US their names are APS, NSLS, SSRL, and ALS; in Europe: HASYLAB, DESYLAB, ESRF, ANKA, Diamond, Soleil, and the SLS; in Japan: SPring8 and the Photon Factory) you will find lots of information about x-ray tomography. It's really a very cool technique. 3D pictures of things without having to open them up!

That's great

[Anonymous Coward]

and all, but I don't have any depth perception you insensitive clod!

My cat can eat a WHOLE watermelon

[LunaticTippy]

I've had that sig for a long time, and you're the very first to mention it. Thank you.

I like fossils as much as the next guy....

[Cisko Kid]

But I never described any of my finds as "orgasmic".

Re:I like fossils as much as the next guy....

[Jeremi]

But I never described any of my finds as "orgasmic".

Then clearly you aren't doing it right.

Penis? Teeth?

[mangu]

related to a modern group of marine invertebrates known as the penis worms, based on the number of teeth it has and the way they are arranged

Yes, because modern penises have teeth? Sorry, this whole "synchroton-radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy" thing is way too complex for my humble brain to understand...

I thought life was 3 billion years old

[Snarfangel]

Wouldn't 500 million years ago be the Tea Time of Life?

Re:I thought life was 3 billion years old

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're talking unicellular life, yes. There's evidence for life going back more than 3.5 billion years ago, but for most of that time it isn't much more elaborate than bacteria. If you're a multicellular animal, no, 500 million puts you near their first occurrence (which is about 600 million years ago). Multicellular animals were rather late in the story of life. It probably had something to do with the low free oxygen in the atmosphere for the first few billion years or so of Earth history.

The early Earth wasn't exactly a hospitable place for creatures remotely like us. If you had a time machine and went back that far (billions of years), you'd promptly suffocate and die if you didn't have breathing equipment with you.

and as an added bonus...

[Anonymous Coward]

...this process actual adds so much energy that it re-animates the embryo, causing it to grow into a full-grown dinosaur in a matter of weeks. So, it's definitely a step forward in the ..... ARRRRGH!!!!!!! IT FEEDS!!!!

Movies

[whitehatlurker]

They're rather boring, but movies can be found here of the synchroton-radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy.

Re:Movies

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

synchroton-radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy

I should remember not to play Scrabble with you...

Know your Greeks

[theCat]

And just in case you thought that the scientific name of the organisms was kind of arbitrary string of characters, educate yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priapus

Who said scientists have no sense of humor?

I like this scanning technique,

[porky_pig_jr]

pretty intelligent design, eh? Oops ...

As Long as they don't use the Stem Cells

[MrCopilot]

As Long as they don't try to use the Stem Cells, Everything will be fine.

Else W will come down like thunder.

Eureka!

[StarfishOne]

I always wonder how ideas like this come to life (no pun intended). Can you imagine a dialogue like this:

Scientist 1: how are we going to research those rare half-billion-year-old fossil embryos?

Scientist 2: My precioussss.....

Scientist 3: Well, I've got enough frequent flyer miles to get a free blast at some huge 500 meter-wide particle accelerator in Switzerland...

Scientist 4: I'm feeling bored.. but hey! Hmm..

Ok, ok. I realise that this idea is pretty strange. In reality I can only applaud these wonderful new ideas to find new tools for investigation. Besides paleontology, I bet this can applied to more fields of research when people hear about this. I believe I hear voices again...

Scientist 5: ???

Scientist 6: profit!!

From the article:

[MattS423]

The results are truly orgasmic," Donoghue said.

Now thats falling in love with your research...