July 2012
6 posts
June 2012
7 posts
Chemical Ghosts...can be FREE!
We just published an eBook entitled ‘Chemical Ghosts’ on the iTunes store. Rather, I should say that Dr. Phil Manning has! If you are so inclined, the said volume can be downloaded for FREE onto your iPad and opened in your iBooks App. This book has photographs, video and text, that explains much about our current research using synchrotron based imaging. Enjoy!
Chemical Ghosts App!
As part of the Palaeontology Research Group exhibit for the forthcoming Royal Society Summer Exhibition (Palimpsests, Palaeontology & Particle Physics), we have had our very own App designed! Yes, we have augmented some fossils into wonderful 3D reality, working in collaboration with Studio Liddell (based in Manchester).
You have to download the App from the iTunes Store (we hope it will be...
Part 5 of Our Story....Reconstructing Confused...
When we mapped the copper distribution in the fossil feathers of Confused Ornis, the Confuciusornis sanctus, it was almost identical to the copper that is bound in the modern pigments. Thus, we can start to tease out what Confused Ornis may have looked like in life. Such preservation marks this fossil as one of the most remarkable in the world and is certainly not a pigment of our imagination....
Part 4 of Our Story....Zapping Fossils
The chemical ghost of Confuciusornis can slowly be sifted from the sands of time for the first time in 125 million years. Using synchrotron light that is brighter than a million suns, we can carefully tease out the chemical inventory of this prehistoric bird without damaging a feather on its head. When we map the distribution and concentration of each element in a fossil, we can start piece...
Part 3 of Our Story...The Discovery
Confused Ornis, the slightly misguided Confuciusornis sanctus, and his now fossilized friends were discovered in China over 150 million years after their downfall. These fossils had to be carefully prepared, using no glues or chemicals, so we could study the chemistry preserved in these feathery finds. Ultimately, we wanted to find out if the beautiful fossil of Confused Ornis preserved some...
Part 2 of Our Story....
The choice habitat for our early bird, Confuciusornis sanctus (or Confused Ornis for short), was not very wise. Confused Ornis had not taken into account a volcano that was a little too close to the lake where he lived. While living there, for the most part, was lovely, the smoke that drifted from the volcanoes contained many toxic gases. Confused Ornis didn’t seem to mind the sulfurous smell...
Part 1 of Our Story...
The story of our research begins125 million years ago. On the shores of a freshwater lake lived a species of bird unlike any before it. What made this bird so unique was that it was the first beaked bird. All of his feathery ancestors had teeth in their mouths but he did not. This toothless early bird is named Confuciusornis sanctus, or Confused Ornis for short. Although, Confused Onis had...
May 2012
2 posts
No Slacking at SLAC
Much time has passed since we have seen the light of day. Apparently, it is still sunny outside…but walking back to our accommodation at 3am…the sun was conspicuously absent. We have managed to run many samples with a much-reduced beam team (a mere five of us), given funding has been rather tight. We are trying our best to squeeze as much time as possible from the next few days we have...
Will we ever see the light of day?
Working at a synchrotron usually involves being below ground level, surrounded by concrete, serenaded by the hum of energy and crushed by the absence of sleep. The 8-hour shifts often merge into 24-hour days whilst the timeless hum of relativistic electrons fills the air. Tomorrow, the University of Manchester team will start building another experiment on beamline 6-2 at the Stanford Synchrotron...
March 2012
4 posts
Chemical Ghosts that go bump...
Welcome to Palimpsests, Palaeontology and Partical Physics or otherwise known as the Chemical Ghosts blog! This blog will take you on a journey that follows the progress of the University of Manchester Palaeontology Research Group’s exhibit for the Royal Society Summer Exhibition 2012. We will try to keep you updated with the fun and games of building an exhibit for such...
