Journey to the CT scanner lab to watch scientists in action looking inside a Peruvian Mummy

Journey to the CT scanner lab to watch scientists in action looking inside a Peruvian Mummy

Researchers at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History are looking to probe in a seven centuries old mummy to reveal secrets about its life and death.

Dr Bruno Frolich is working in his small room these days, looking at the fine details of their imports from Peru.

Frolich and his team have their hands on one of the best preserved Peruvian mummies, and will be using CT scans and other imaging devices to get data about her. Applications of these devices are favoured by the researchers to get the job done without damaging
her.

X-rays by the scanner takes thousands of images, revealing minute details. Computer software is then employed to reassemble the images. The result gives the researchers highly accurate, detailed three-dimensional models.

"We could probably do the same with a traditional autopsy," says Bruno Frolich, a physical anthropologist with the museum, "but there would be nothing left for future generations and it would destroy something that should not be destroyed."

Visit to the CT scanner lab at the National Museum of Natural History is a journey worthy of its own description. Passersby tread along stuffed elephants, birds, mammals and Native American artefacts before reaching the research wings.

The journey does not end in the research wing. You have to continue a long walk through a labyrinth of dimly lit corridors before arriving at your desired destination.

The newest CT scanners at the museum are valued at 250 thousand Dollars, and have been donated to the Washington based institution by global technology giant Siemens in spring, 2011. Since early 1990s, the company has donated four scanners to the museum.

"It allows us to connect the dots of history," says Kulin Hemani, a vice-president at Siemens’ computed tomography division, explaining the significance of the mummies. "How these people were living, what were their habits, how did they die?"

Mummies are not the only objects under observation in the expensively assembled lab. The technology is also being used to examine priceless Stradivarius violins, marine fossils, pottery, aging NASA spacesuits and more. According to researchers, the technology
can be used for innumerable purposes.

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Posted by Awais Khan on Oct 29 2011. Filed under Sci-Tech, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry