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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 30 2018, @12:47AM (2 children)
I was peeking inside your mummie
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 30 2018, @06:00AM (1 child)
Learn to write, the cirrect speling is "Poking inside your tummie"
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 30 2018, @09:04AM
"Peaking inside you Mother" is not remotely like poking inside anything, or peeking into anything, either. Although, they are not mutually exclusive. Molesting corpses, however, is best left to Republican nominees to the Supreme Court, so that they can produce a calendar and insist it never happened.
(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 $$$.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 30 2018, @11:36AM
islam has an obligation to destroy idols
Kill! Crush! Destroy! Rule the planet!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01 2018, @06:45AM
Anything that's well preserved after centuries underground should continue to stay well preserved for a few more centuries till presumably technology will be good enough to find stuff, learn from them AND their surroundings without having to damage anything.
Or we would be repeating stone/medieval age again... In which case it would also be better if that stuff stayed under our ruins than more exposed to looters and vandals.