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Breakthrough Gives 3-D Vision of Dawn of Life

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the like-looking-at-really-old-black-and-whites dept.

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."

2 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Non-damaging? by Tired+and+Emotional · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Squirrel!
    1. Re:Non-damaging? by leonidas · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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!