{"id":1352,"date":"2017-06-08T17:36:24","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T22:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/?p=1352"},"modified":"2019-10-02T09:23:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T14:23:26","slug":"tosca-texas-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/tosca-texas-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"ToScA Texas 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

A confluence of ~ 70 geologists, anthropologists, biologists and material scientists descended upon Austin June 6-8th<\/sup>\u00a0for the first ever ToScA<\/a>\u00a0(Tomography for Scientific Advancement) meeting in North America. This is a group who really likes to 3D print and make\u00a0fancy rotating, reconstructed 3D videos for\u00a0their powerpoint presentations. After two days looking at X-ray scans of Lucy\u2019s broken bones<\/a>, parasites within lizards, carbonado diamonds<\/a>,\u00a0and ancient seed pods, I discovered that I am in a community that stretches far beyond my Lithosphere and Deep Earth\/hard rock community here at the Jackson School. Why are we all here? Because UT is home to a very special lab in the basement of JGB \u2013 the UT High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography Laboratory<\/a> (UTCT), an NSF multi-user facility that is celebrating its 20th<\/sup> anniversary this year.<\/p>\n

\"Xradia
Xradia microXCT scanner in the UTCT Lab (from http:\/\/www.ctlab.geo.utexas.edu\/the-lab\/)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with CT \u2013 it\u2019s the cousin of the medical CT scanners that are used to detect tumors and broken bones in patients at hospitals. The CT scanners you find in university science departments are adapted with a higher energy X-Ray source to produce high resolution, 3D, nondestructive images that can penetrate rocks, fossils, and soft tissue biological samples.<\/p>\n

\"(left)
(left) A precious core sample recovered during deep sea drilling into oceanic crust kilometers below sea level; (center) 2D slice of X-Ray data of the core; (right) Reconstructed 3D visualization highlighting specific minerals using CT data.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CT\u2019s ability to produce nondestructive, high resolution 3D data has very clear\u00a0benefits for studying rare and valuable samples<\/a> (e.g., fossils and meteorites). In addition, it has many uses for scientists that need a fast view within a sample or 3D measurements. That\u2019s why I\u2019m here. Without CT my PhD work would not have been possible. For my research, I analyzed the age of mineral grains, but I needed to ensure that my grains were pure \u2013 meaning they were free of inclusions, fractures or intergrown foreign material inside. The issue\u00a0is that the minerals I study are opaque, which\u00a0means that you can\u2019t see through it with plain light to check for internal homogeneity. Enter my 3D X-ray goggles \u2013 CT scanning \u2013 which imparts the super human power of being able to see through the grains that I study and easily pick out the unsatisfactory ones.<\/p>\n

\"(left)
(left) Opaque magnetite grains in plain light; (center) 2D slice of X-Ray data of the grains; (right) Volume reconstruction of the grains using CT data.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My work with CT is an example of a simple application of this high-level technology. A piece of low-hanging fruit that improves the scientific technique that I use. There are certainly more low-hanging fruit out there that can improve the scientific workflow for folks in the geoscience community who are studying rocks and minerals with traditional 2D methods. As CT scanners become more common in institutions, I look forward to seeing this community grow in time for the next North American ToScA conference.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Header image: CT scan of a Komodo dragon skull, by UTCT Facility Manager Jessie Maisano.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A confluence of ~ 70 geologists, anthropologists, biologists and material scientists descended upon Austin June 6-8th\u00a0for the first ever ToScA\u00a0(Tomography for Scientific Advancement) meeting in North America. This is a group who really likes to 3D print and make\u00a0fancy rotating, reconstructed 3D videos for\u00a0their powerpoint presentations. After two days looking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meetings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1352"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1374,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions\/1374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}