How neutron imaging uncovers hidden secrets of fossils and artifacts
The subatomic particles can find things other imaging techniques can’t
In this artist’s imagining of an ancient fossil embedded in rock, neutron imaging uncovers a hidden bone.
Natasha Mutch/SayoStudio
Shattered crocodile. Formally, Confractosuchus. It was discovered in Australia when a bulldozer clearing a boulder broke a stone into pieces. Exposed portions of the broken-up rock made clear that fossils were inside, but there was no immediate sign that this discovery would later reveal an unprecedented snapshot of life from the Cretaceous Period.