Peering into the past life of this fossil took an x-ray scanner powered by a particle accelerator. What scientists saw there was mysterious: an ancient lizard had left behind its skin and teeth, but none of its bones. To tell the ghost's tale, they relied on some very modern equipment.
At Stanford University, an accelerator called a synchrotron sends electrons zipping around a track fast enough that x-rays spin off of them. These x-rays are collected into an extremely bright x-ray beam that scientists can use for various projects. One application, x-ray fluorescence, lets researchers map the actual chemical elements inside on object.
Other methods of analyzing an item's chemical makeup require scientists to focus on tiny slices, destroy their samples entirely, or creep along at a rate of one square centimeter a day. But the setup at Stanford lets scientists look quickly and thoroughly at larger objects while keeping ...
