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Using X-ray Radiography To Reveal Ancient Insects

Posted by kdawson on from the bug-me-not dept.

1shooter writes "Researchers in France are using a synchrotron as a giant X-ray machine to peer into the insides of opaque amber to reveal insects dating from the age of dinosaurs. 'The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, produces an intense, high-energy light that can pierce just about any material, revealing its inner structure... From more than 600 blocks, they have identified nearly 360 fossil animals: wasps, flies, ants, spiders.' The process reveals detailed 3D images that can be used to make near-perfect enlarged scale models of the bugs using a 'plastic printer.'"

14 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. How many furlongs is that? by Skevin · · Score: 5, Funny

    > From more than 600 blocks, they have identified nearly 360 fossil animals: wasps,
    > flies, ants, spiders

    Why so far away? They might get better resolution if they held the sample right up next to the machine.

    Solomon Chang

    --
    "Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
    1. Re:How many furlongs is that? by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 4, Informative

      >why the need for a synchrotron?

      Resolution. Details are shown at the micron level.

      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    2. Re:How many furlongs is that? by sokoban · · Score: 4, Informative

      What I'm wondering is, why the need for a synchrotron? Why not just any old X-ray machine? It seems from the video that the technique they're using needs collimated and coherent light. It seems that they are measuring the change in coherence based on the light being shined through the sample in order to calculate density differences and show structure. They're not doing diffraction measurements here, and the samples don't look like they're large enough to require the intensity generated by a SLS.
      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
    3. Re:How many furlongs is that? by H0D_G · · Score: 5, Informative

      The technique is similar to in line holography, in that the resultant image (a phase-contrast X-ray image)is constructed from the phase information of the light, as distinct from the intensity. phase contrast imaging is good for 'squishy' structures as it only needs a very small shift in refractive index to influence the phase, meaning that structures similar in density (ie, that would look similar on a conventional X-ray) can be produced.

      --
      Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home!
    4. Re:How many furlongs is that? by RealGrouchy · · Score: 4, Funny

      *looks up from the amber specimen*

      "That's not a bug, it's a feature!"

      - RG>

      --
      Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
  2. Yes, but... by Naughty+Bob · · Score: 5, Funny

    Researchers in France are using a synchrotron as a giant X-ray machine......Do they run Linacs?

    --
    "Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
  3. Holotype by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A very interesting sidelight of this is that they "print" a 3d model of the data in plastic, and this model becomes part of the official holotype of the new species. A first for taxonomy, I believe. A 1 mm wasp gets turned into a highly detailed 30 cm model. Very cool, at least if you're a biologist.

    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    1. Re:Holotype by Benson+Arizona · · Score: 3, Funny

      The 3-D model is then encased in Amber, for protection and buried for the pleasure of future palaeontologists. Ohh wait...

  4. Peer through opaque objects by garett_spencley · · Score: 3, Funny

    "The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, produces an intense, high-energy light that can pierce just about any material,"

    Does anyone know where I can obtain one of these devices ?

    I always thought they were just a novelty sold via mail order in Mad Magazines. Can't tell you how many times I've been disappointed. If this is the real deal then please ...

    1. Re:Peer through opaque objects by Caesar+Tjalbo · · Score: 3, Funny

      I want one on a shark.

      --
      "I'm not much interested in interoperability. I want substitutability. I want to be able to throw your software out."
  5. Re:Uh, how? by Naughty+Bob · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's almost as if they'd need a giant X-ray machine!

    --
    "Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
  6. New application by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wonder if this technique will work with Fortran code we still use in our Monte-carlo generators for the LHC. I'm sure it also contains ancient bugs....

  7. Re:Today must be redundant day today. by H0D_G · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, intense and high energy are not necessarily the same thing, especially in terms of radiation. intense means that the number of photons over an incident area is high, whilst high energy means that the photons are from the higher frequency end of the X-ray spectrum.

    --
    Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home!
  8. Just an educated guess, they run Linux. by gnutoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    HPC is pretty much Linux dominated and you need some serious horsepower to do 1000 angle sinogram backprojection of cm sized volumes with micron sized beams. A cubic cm would have 10E4 x 10E4 x 10E4 voxels, each with 10E3 angles. Hubba, hubba. They will also have to apply some kind of filtering to each sinogram and probably have to tweak that filter multiple times on lower resolution scans to get it right, and they want to do several a day. I've seen Microsoft clusters choke on networking problems for much less challenging work.