INTRICATELY preserved with its internal make-up laid bare, this composite image of a mummified Schlegel鈥檚 Japanese gecko (Gekko japonicus) shows the power of the high-energy X-rays emitted by a special type of particle accelerator.
Gary Ruben, Florian Schaff, Marcus Kitchen and Steve Morton at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, captured the image with a synchrotron, which accelerates electrons to close to the speed of light so that they emit high-energy X-rays. The main difference between a synchrotron鈥檚 X-rays and those from a hospital X-ray machine is brilliance: a synchrotron can produce X-rays that are 100 billion times brighter.
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Synchrotron beams can also be produced at a specified wavelength, letting them reveal more about specimens by distinguishing between very subtle changes in density. This makes synchrotrons a promising candidate for obtaining better medical images of humans in the future.
鈥淭he gecko was an interesting specimen to show the fine detail we can achieve,鈥� says Morton. The particularly high-intensity beams of radiation from a synchrotron increase the image鈥檚 contrast and reduce exposure times, he says, helping with the clarity and visibility of the image.
The team could even get a 3D shot of the gecko by capturing it from thousands of different angles in the synchrotron鈥檚 X-ray beam before combining the views and using a computer to remove image artefacts and to distinguish between materials, such as tissues, for example.
