Windows into ancient life: imaging fossils with synchrotron light and new contrasts

What can we learn about animals that roamed the Earth millions of years ago by doing experiments at some of the most advanced particle accelerator laboratories in the world?

Join us for a Physics Seminar talk by Dr. Buno Kerber to find answers to this question at the intersection of Paleontology, Earth Science and Physics . Dr. Kerber is a geoscientists with the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (Brazil), who is currently a visiting scholar at the Department of Physics at CMU.

"Windows into ancient life: imaging fossils with synchrotron light and new contrasts"

Abstract: Paleontology is often seen as a science developed in dark corridors and dusty drawers of museums and university collections; but this could not be further from the truth. Recent technological developments often applied in Physical, Chemical and Material Sciences are now increasingly being used in paleontological investigations and have dramatically impacted major questions in this field of research. One important source of new information is coming from the application of advanced techniques available at synchrotron facilities. In this talk I aim to address recent developments on imaging fossils, from absorption tomography to new contrasts based on x-ray diffraction. These techniques are opening novel opportunities to understand the history of life on Earth, with implications to studies on fossilization processes, fossil anatomy, and original chemical and mineralogical composition of long-gone organisms.

We will host a reception, 30 minutes before the start of the seminar, at 208 Dow.