Capturing Ghosts

The non-visible world of the electromagnetic spectrum can be beautiful. From ultraviolet to x-rays lurk chemical ghosts we could only imagine in the past. The advent of synchrotron-based imaging has unlocked much of this world. This blog will capture some of these stunning images from researchers around the world who plumb the depths of these hidden worlds, sometimes only a wavelength away... This blog is updated and written by Dr Phil Manning (University of Manchester).

Thursday, 17 October 2013

The Feather

Image taken by Dr. Phil Manning.

This single feather was named Archaeopteryx in 1860. We have chemically imaged this feather at a synchrotron lightsouce to help illuminate the elemental inventory of this fossil. While this is certainly an icon of evolution, and stunningly preserved, it is also simply beautiful.

Monday, 7 October 2013

Image produced by Dr. Russell Garwood (University of Manchester)

Eophrynus pretvicii - This 312 million year old spiny creature is a member of an extinct group of arachnids called the trigonotarbids, closely related to the spiders. Because of fossils like this, studied through X-ray microtomography reconstruction, we know a lot about the biology of this group whose members were the first predators on land, despite the fact they went extinct over 250 million years ago.