Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
In my research I use a host and a range
of scanning technologies, and by that I mean everything
from laser scanners to CT scanners to MRI...
basically data that's acquired using
advanced technology,
but at what it does is it translates the
information about the object into a digitized form,
so I can pull it up on my computer,
I can spin it around,
I can take measurements in ways
that I can't do on the actual object,
and so it really is a liberating ability
to be able to then take more measurements from the scans
without having to handle the object itself anymore,
and in my research, I use it extensively.
Essentially what happens is as the laser goes
across the surface,
a sensor captures that information of where
the laser is contacting the surface,
and from that it translates that information
into a digital model,
so that we essentially create a digital cast
of the object that then we can have inside the computer,
and when that object has to go back away
or even in some cases back in the ground,
we still have a full three-dimensional copy of it,
and that's a phenomenal tool
for research and education.
(Rick) We actually have a
scanning electron microscope, or SEM,
and so we are able to prepare the specimens,
the bones, that we want to look at,
or the edges of stone tools that we want to look at and
then we are able to take the molds and casts of those and
the powerful electron microscope sends electron
beams over the edges of those things,
over the surfaces, and able to create just these
beautiful images at high microscopic power.
(Matt) With laser scanning,
it essentially just captures the outer surface,
because the laser can't see inside the bone,
whereas CT scanning actually sees inside
the bone as well,
so they are complementary technologies.
As paleoanthropologists, we use whatever is available
to us -- whether that happens to be a dental pick or your
bare hands at times, to the most expensive technological
equipment out there... anything that can help
address a question is useful,
and especially if it can help address the question
in a new and novel way,
then you can bet an anthropologist is going to
try to get their hands on it to do it.