An Amazing Science Project
Art Andersen was one of the first scientists to hear about
Leonardo. He saw photos of the fossil
just a few weeks after it had been removed from the ground. Art is not a paleontologist but he has spent
much of his time the last 15 years working with dinosaurs. In 2000, Art was the head of a special
project at the Smithsonian Institution to reconstruct their famous
Triceratops. Nearly 100 million people
have seen this dinosaur skeleton at the American
Museum of Natural History in Washington,
DC.
Only a few of these people, mostly scientists, knew that the skeleton
was put together from pieces of at least six different Triceratops. Each dinosaur was slightly different in size
and so the skeleton was not in its proper proportions. What Art did was to use new computer and
scanning technology to scan each bone and create a three dimensional model of
all the bones. Then, using a special
machine attached to a computer, he made new bones out of a special material. It was like printing a picture in three
dimensions! The bones that Art made were
all scaled to the right size and replaced the bones that didn't match what the
real dinosaur would have looked like.
The result was that for the first time in over 70 years, the Triceratops
was exactly the right size. It's skull
was nearly six inches longer and the bones of one of its legs were a few inches
taller.
No one in the world had as much experience as Art Andersen in applying new and exciting technologies to create images and models of dinosaurs. However, even to Art, Leonardo presented a unique challenge. Two things were asked of Art by the growing science team, a team that now included world famous paleontologist Dr. Bob Bakker. The first, creating a three-dimensional model of Leonardo without the usual methods of molding and casting, was relatively easy. The second, looking inside of Leonardo without harming the fossil, was a real head-scratcher. Art had already proven he could create a perfect replica of an original fossil by using scanning techniques such as white-light scanning. However, peering inside a 77 million year old fossilized dinosaur mummy was something completely different.
The team didn’t want to just X ray Leonardo. They wanted to look inside and have clear three dimensional images of what was in there. And, if possible, create models of what they found. The big possibility, the thing that was on everyone’s mind but that seemed to be hoping beyond possibility, was finding organs. So far, more than a year into the investigation, it still seemed that Leonardo had fossilized with all his skin intact. This meant that what was in his body when he died might have been preserved. However, this was new scientific territory and no one knew what to expect.
Fortunately for the science team, Art Andersen was well known and respected in the specialized world of industrial imaging. His friends at Eastman Kodak, Carestream Health and NDT Group were all very enthusiastic about the possibility of working on a dinosaur. Art's idea was to use different types of very powerful x rays and radiation to look inside Leonardo. The first step was to send a small piece of Leonardo, a chunk of his back end that had fallen off before the excavation, to Kodak in Rochester and let them test it. The team needed to see if the new technology, called computed radiography, could tell the difference between what was rock and what was bone. The test was a success and a schedule was set to bring two teams of technicians to remote Malta, Montana and take a look inside Leonardo. (to learn more about computed radiography click here)
The video clip below, from the Discovery Channel documentary about Leonardo, shows the science team at NASA's Johnson Space Center during the imaging of Leonardo's internal soft tissue structures. Video courtesy of MythMerchant films.
To be continued...
No one in the world had as much experience as Art Andersen in applying new and exciting technologies to create images and models of dinosaurs. However, even to Art, Leonardo presented a unique challenge. Two things were asked of Art by the growing science team, a team that now included world famous paleontologist Dr. Bob Bakker. The first, creating a three-dimensional model of Leonardo without the usual methods of molding and casting, was relatively easy. The second, looking inside of Leonardo without harming the fossil, was a real head-scratcher. Art had already proven he could create a perfect replica of an original fossil by using scanning techniques such as white-light scanning. However, peering inside a 77 million year old fossilized dinosaur mummy was something completely different.
The team didn’t want to just X ray Leonardo. They wanted to look inside and have clear three dimensional images of what was in there. And, if possible, create models of what they found. The big possibility, the thing that was on everyone’s mind but that seemed to be hoping beyond possibility, was finding organs. So far, more than a year into the investigation, it still seemed that Leonardo had fossilized with all his skin intact. This meant that what was in his body when he died might have been preserved. However, this was new scientific territory and no one knew what to expect.
Fortunately for the science team, Art Andersen was well known and respected in the specialized world of industrial imaging. His friends at Eastman Kodak, Carestream Health and NDT Group were all very enthusiastic about the possibility of working on a dinosaur. Art's idea was to use different types of very powerful x rays and radiation to look inside Leonardo. The first step was to send a small piece of Leonardo, a chunk of his back end that had fallen off before the excavation, to Kodak in Rochester and let them test it. The team needed to see if the new technology, called computed radiography, could tell the difference between what was rock and what was bone. The test was a success and a schedule was set to bring two teams of technicians to remote Malta, Montana and take a look inside Leonardo. (to learn more about computed radiography click here)
The video clip below, from the Discovery Channel documentary about Leonardo, shows the science team at NASA's Johnson Space Center during the imaging of Leonardo's internal soft tissue structures. Video courtesy of MythMerchant films.
To be continued...