Pew! Pew! Paleontologists Harness the Power of Lasers

When in possession of a priceless dinosaur skeleton, it’s always a good idea to fire a super-charged photon beam at it. That’s Thomas G. Kaye’s philosophy: if you can fossilize it, you can fire a laser at it. Kaye, of the Foundation of Scientific Advancement, Sierra Vista, developed a laser-scanning technique that reveals stunning new details buried within dinosaur fossils — so meta. Now he’s traveling the world placing new specimens in his crosshairs. Kaye is joined by Mike Pittman, who’s already infamous at Discover for spotting fossils while taking a whiz in the Gobi Desert. Together, they’re trekking around the world armed with nothing more than their portable laser and an inquisitive eye. The duo has already published four research papers based on discoveries using their next-generation technology. Their technique, called ‘laser-stimulated fluorescence’ (LSF), blasts a high-energy light beam at targets, and minerals within fossilized material produce different wavelengths ...