Scientists Can Now Peek Inside Mummies in a Whole New Way:
A revved-up version of traditional CT (computed tomography) scanning shows it’s possible to acquire microscopic-scale images of ancient Egyptian mummies, revealing previously unseen features such as blood vessels and nerves.
Non-destructive x-ray and CT scans are a boon to medical scientists and healthcare practitioners, but they’re also an indispensable tool for archaeologists who try not to disturb ancient remains any more than they have to. When it comes to studying ancient mummies, these scanning techniques have been used to sketch the rough outlines of soft tissue and hair, and even to reveal interior features such as muscles and bones.
A new proof-of-concept study published this week in Radiology shows a modified version of CT scanning, called phase-contrast CT scanning, can be used to do microscopic-scale imaging of soft-tissue in human mummies. This imaging technique detects the absorption and phase shift (similar to how light changes direction when it passes through a lens) that happens when x-rays pass through a solid object. The resulting images feature a higher level of contrast than traditional x-ray images.
The full journal article is available online and contains some impressive pictures.
Journal Reference:
Jenny Romell, William Vågberg, Mikael Romell, Sofia Häggman, Salima Ikram, Hans M. Hertz Soft-Tissue Imaging in a Human Mummy: Propagation-based Phase-Contrast CT Radiology DOI: https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.2018180945
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday September 30 2018, @03:49AM
I don't clearly remember how they work, but all the real biologists use them. We had a few in Bio 1 at Caltech.
Rather than staining your slide, the microscope visualizes the different refractive indices of the various transparent materials under observations. That leads bacteria to light up all the colors of the rainbow.
Phase Contrast Microscopes are quite cool but $$$.
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