Breakthrough gives 3-D vision of life’s dawn

August 10, 2006 | Source: MSNBC

A new technique allowing virtual dissections of half-billion-year-old fossil embryos is producing the first three-dimensional images of the dawn of life.

Synchroton-radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy, or SRXTM, leaves the tiny fossils untouched (compared to the conventional use of acid) but gives graphic details of their structure.

SRXTM scanning shows the interior or fossil embryos

SRXTM scanning shows the interior or fossil embryos