User:Daniel Mietchen/Proposals/SciFund Challenge May 2012

About
This page hosts the draft for a contribution to the second round of the SciFund Challenge, running through May 2012.

Title
''Some suggestions. None is final yet. Technically, several could remain in use throughout the Challenge.''
 * Paleodiagnostic imaging
 * Who did what to whom, fossil version in 3D
 * Who did what to whom (fossil 3D version)
 * Who did what to whom (3D version, featuring crowdsourced fossils)
 * The revival of odd fossils
 * Crowdsourcing the revival of odd fossils
 * What is wrong with your fossil?

Summary
Let's identify oddly-shaped fossils and scan them to find out what's wrong with them.

Project description
Based on this expression of interest.

Fossils are rare, and fossils with pathological alterations even more so. In such cases, the desire to study these specimens has to be balanced against the potential damage that the research procedures may inflict on the specimens. Naturally, non-destructive means of investigation are of special interest. The method most commonly used to generate non-destructive 3D images is X-ray tomography, which basically generates image contrast as a function of the mass density distribution within the sample. An alternative approach is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), whose image contrast reflects differences in the magnetic properties within the sample that are due to an uneven distribution of its chemical components, especially of water.

The core of my PhD research was devoted to testing the applicability of MRI to 3D imaging of biological materials with very low amounts of liquid water, most notably frozen samples and fossils. While not every tested fossil yielded good MRI data, a good number of specimens did, including a set of five oddly-shaped belemnites whose MRI scans revealed the nature of their diseases and injuries. In a related study, it could be shown that the method works with a variety of fossils, including plants as well as invertebrate and vertebrate animals.

In this project - to be conducted entirely in the open - I plan to invite the community of fossil collectors and paleontologists to propose specimens whose scientific study could benefit from non-invasive imaging. The proposals would be discussed in public in terms of their relative merits and of the suitability of MRI to help address the open questions posed by the specimen. While most clinical MRI scans take just a few minutes, the typical scanning time for a fossil is on the order of one day, for which MRI labs charge on the order of 1000 US$. Fortunately, a sister technology of MRI - NMR Spectroscopy - allows to estimate the water content in the specimen within minutes, which provides information on the image quality that can be expected for a 3D scan.

The SciFund budget would be used to buy measurement time from suitably equipped and located MRI labs, with the aim of generating at least one high-quality 3D image of a fossil. More funds would translate in more specimens being scanned. I expect considerably more specimens to be proposed than what budgetary and technical constraints allow to scan, so the SciFund project is also intended to serve as a test case to be submitted alongside a research proposal within the framework of a more classical funding scheme.

You can get involved in multiple ways:


 * 1) If you have fossils - please check whether you have any that are pathologically deformed but otherwise in a good state and sized somewhere between a lentil and your thumb. If so, please get in touch.
 * 2) if you run a MRI system at 9.4 T or higher and are interested in giving fossils a try, please get in touch.
 * 3) if you are a paleontologist or experienced with technical aspects of MRI, please consider commenting on the specimens proposed so far.
 * 4) by donating
 * 5) by spreading the word about the project amongst others who might be interested in doing any of the above.

Videos
''A number of videos are available on Vimeo. See also Universal Subtitles.''