tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/3d-scanning-20525/articles
3D scanning – The Conversation
2024-01-17T13:06:07Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219122
2024-01-17T13:06:07Z
2024-01-17T13:06:07Z
3D scanning: we recreated a sacred South African site in a way that captures its spirit
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563302/original/file-20231204-19-z5jfbg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 3D rendering of Ga-Mohana Hill in South Africa, a sacred and important heritage site.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stephen Wessels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>These days, if you want to visit remarkable archaeological sites such as <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/364/">Great Zimbabwe</a> or <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/326/">Petra</a> in Jordan you don’t even need to leave your house. </p>
<p>3D scanning technology has improved in leaps and bounds in the last two decades and become much more affordable. This has led to numerous archaeological and heritage sites appearing on online interactive 3D platforms such as <a href="https://sketchfab.com">Sketchfab</a>. Unlike still images and videos, 3D models offer enhanced interaction, enabling users to navigate and perceive a place from various perspectives. </p>
<p>But while technology has raced ahead, there is a noticeable lag in the establishment of best practice guidelines within the field.</p>
<p>We are a multidisciplinary team made up of a geomatician, an architect, and two archaeologists. In <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11759-022-09460-3">a recent article</a> we examined the implications of current scanning technology and sought to answer the question: can people avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when digitising cultural locations? </p>
<p>One criticism of current 3D models of archaeological sites is that they are devoid of human traces and history. The pursuit of objectivity in scientific endeavours is the norm. But, in using 3D technology – making decisions about site boundaries, what is cleaned from the model, and the chosen level of detail – a subjective filter is introduced. The omission of human usage and cultural traces renders these representations static and sterile. This inadvertently strips sites of the very culture they aim to preserve.</p>
<p>In our research we sought to offer an alternative approach: one which aligns with indigenous archaeology, where indigenous knowledge and scientific methods are blended. To do so, we undertook a case study by <a href="https://rockartportal.org/Ga-Mohana.html">digitising a site</a> in South Africa that is of profound cultural and spiritual importance to many who live in that area. The results highlighted that, with considered approaches, researchers can help keep the vibrant culture of meaningful places alive even when they’re brought into the digital world. </p>
<h2>A place with potency</h2>
<p>Ga-Mohana Hill is situated close to a small town called Kuruman in a semi-arid region in the north of South Africa. We chose the site as our case study because of its rich cultural and archaeological significance. It has two significant rock shelters, Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, facing north-west, and Ga-Mohana Hill South Rockshelter, facing south-east, which are located at opposite sides of the hill. </p>
<p>The south rockshelter preserves rock art and archaeological traces from the Later Stone Age. In the north shelter, archaeologists have <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-eggshells-and-a-hoard-of-crystals-reveal-early-human-innovation-and-ritual-in-the-kalahari-154191">recovered material</a> dating to 105,000 years ago, including ostrich eggshell fragments, stone tools, and a cache of calcite crystals. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-eggshells-and-a-hoard-of-crystals-reveal-early-human-innovation-and-ritual-in-the-kalahari-154191">Ancient eggshells and a hoard of crystals reveal early human innovation and ritual in the Kalahari</a>
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<p>Today Ga-Mohana Hill holds profound cultural significance for the local community. While this cultural heritage endures, its prominence has been diminishing due to various socio-political factors. One of us, Sechaba Maape, grew up in the area, and has actively worked to restore Ga-Mohana as a meaningful place from a cultural perspective. <a href="https://www.thesitemagazine.com/read/drawing-creepy-places">Reflecting on his youth</a>, he recounts tales of Noga ya Metsi, the Great Snake, residing in the rockshelters and engaging in abductions and supernatural activities that unsettled the community. </p>
<p>These narratives contributed to the places acquiring a frightening reputation. Interestingly, the secrecy surrounding the locations dissuades many in the community from visiting them, though the sites have been used for various initiation rituals. And, today, the landscapes at Ga-Mohana Hill are used by church groups and other community members for spiritual communion and prayer sessions. Traditional healers and <a href="https://theworkshopkokasi.co.za/">tourists</a> also visit Ga-Mohana.</p>
<p>These multiple uses and its rich archaeological heritage mean that Ga-Mohana is a place of deep meaning and can be considered a living heritage site. We therefore wanted to create an online, interactive 3D digital replica that represented its multiple uses. Ultimately, our aim was to manifest the potency that this place holds within the 3D model, rather than merely representing its archaeological and scientific value.</p>
<h2>A new approach to 3D models</h2>
<p>Our approach was to focus on three elements. First, the agency – the ability to act upon people to give and receive meaning – that this place holds. Second, the proximity the 3D model gives to the physical site and to past and present people and their cultures and, third, the multivocal nature of the site – that is, telling the different stories of this place so all relevant voices can be heard.</p>
<p>To achieve this, we conducted a 3D scan of Ga-Mohana Hill and its shelters by acquiring photogrammetric images by drone and hand-held cameras. The images were processed to produce an optimised 3D model suitable for web-based applications. The <a href="https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/ga-mohana-hill-and-rock-shelters-f260e92d749045a1b4896a30f96a09a5">3D model</a> was then augmented with a number of visual devices, along with customised text in the form of rotating signboards. </p>
<p>The Great Snake is represented as a moving shadow on the shelter wall. Candles were placed in the 3D version of the shelter to symbolise the site’s ongoing religious aspects. </p>
<p>To represent the archaeology, a number of artefacts that were excavated were 3D scanned and then digitally placed into the 3D model to show where they were found, thus in a sense returning them to their original context. Other visual devices include a hearth, flowing tufas (ancient waterfalls), enhanced rock art and animated engravings. All the visual devices were designed to be moving to animate the place and show its vitality.</p>
<p>We also created <a href="https://rockartportal.org/Ga-Mohana.html">a website</a> to contextualise and introduce the 3D model and warn people who may not want to visit the model for cultural reasons and because of its ritual potency.</p>
<h2>What we’ve learned</h2>
<p>Based on what we’ve learned from this project, we proposed an approach that prioritises the digitisation of place – with all its meanings and vitality, over space – simply inert geometry – emphasising agency, proximity and multivocality.</p>
<p>A shift is needed from a purely objective approach to 3D documentation, towards representing the space as a meaningful place to a public audience. This involves acknowledging and portraying cultural, social and political contexts. By avoiding the privileging of one voice over others, our aim is to subvert dominant viewpoints and promote inclusivity. </p>
<p>The study also underscores the significance of archaeological visualisation in reshaping perceptions of the past and contributing to the formation of present identities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Schoville receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jayne Wilkins receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Griffith University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sechaba Maape and Stephen Wessels do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
One criticism of current 3D models of archaeological sites is that they are presented devoid of human traces and history.
Stephen Wessels, PhD candidate, University of Cape Town
Benjamin Schoville, Senior Research Fellow, The University of Queensland
Jayne Wilkins, ARC DECRA Research Fellow, Griffith University
Sechaba Maape, Senior Lecturer, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211461
2023-08-17T00:31:42Z
2023-08-17T00:31:42Z
Thick ones, pointy ones – how albatross beaks evolved to match their prey
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542699/original/file-20230814-22-8dy4u7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C66%2C3995%2C2951&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Milan Sojitra</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Albatross are among the world’s largest flying birds, with wingspans that can stretch beyond a remarkable three metres. These majestic animals harness ocean winds to travel thousands of kilometres in search of food while barely flapping their wings. </p>
<p>Young albatross, embarking on their first journey, can spend up to five years at sea without ever touching land.</p>
<p>Yet not all albatross are the same. Across the world’s oceans there exist 22 species, with many sharing an overlapping range around the <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-ocean-like-no-other-the-southern-oceans-ecological-richness-and-significance-for-global-climate-151084">Southern Ocean</a> — a region synonymous with cold, roaring winds and towering waves. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230751">new research</a> published today shows how albatross species evolved different beak shapes to make the most of the ocean’s food resources. These species have adapted to different seafood diets.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543121/original/file-20230816-17-nrcdaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A resting grey-headed albatross with its head turned to one side showing its striking yellow and black compound beak against a green leafy backdrop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543121/original/file-20230816-17-nrcdaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543121/original/file-20230816-17-nrcdaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543121/original/file-20230816-17-nrcdaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543121/original/file-20230816-17-nrcdaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543121/original/file-20230816-17-nrcdaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543121/original/file-20230816-17-nrcdaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543121/original/file-20230816-17-nrcdaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A grey-headed albatross (<em>Thalassarche chrysostoma</em>) showing its striking yellow and black compound beak.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bryce Robinson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-ocean-like-no-other-the-southern-oceans-ecological-richness-and-significance-for-global-climate-151084">An ocean like no other: the Southern Ocean's ecological richness and significance for global climate</a>
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<h2>Move over, Darwin’s finches!</h2>
<p>In 1835 Charles Darwin discovered the <a href="https://theconversation.com/darwins-finches-highlight-the-unity-of-all-life-38039">finches of the Galápagos Islands</a> and noted their beaks varied in shape and size to suit different diets. This observation became a centrepiece for the theory of evolution, showing how species adapt to different ways of life.</p>
<p>From a single common ancestor, Darwin’s finches diversified. Some birds have thick beaks for feeding on seeds and nuts, while others have pointed beaks for eating insects. This variation allows species to specialise, helping them to share available food sources and limit competition. </p>
<p>Albatross have fascinating beaks. Unlike most other birds, they have a “compound” beak made of multiple pieces of keratin. Albatross spend most of their lives at sea, so they have adapted to drink seawater. They use a special gland to remove salt from the seawater and their beaks contain tube-like passages that excrete the salty liquid. </p>
<p>By studying the shape of albatross beaks in three dimensions (3D), our new research shows that, just like Darwin’s finches, albatross beaks vary in size and shape to adapt to different diets.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542694/original/file-20230814-27-xjjzeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A composite image showing a variety of albatross beaks, lined up and labelled, against a black background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542694/original/file-20230814-27-xjjzeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542694/original/file-20230814-27-xjjzeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542694/original/file-20230814-27-xjjzeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542694/original/file-20230814-27-xjjzeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542694/original/file-20230814-27-xjjzeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542694/original/file-20230814-27-xjjzeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542694/original/file-20230814-27-xjjzeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Albatross have compound beaks made of multiple pieces of keratin. These vary in size and shape between the different species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Josh Tyler</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<h2>The 3D scanning revolution</h2>
<p>Wildlife research is undergoing a revolution as scientists use new 3D scanning and modelling techniques to compare the anatomy of animals. This gives fresh insights into their ecology and evolution. </p>
<p>Using museum specimens, we made 3D digital models of beaks for 61 birds from 12 different albatross species. We compared the size and shape of different species’ beaks. We tested if closely-related species had similar beaks. Alternatively, beaks might be more alike between species that are distantly related but consume similar food. Such a pattern would be an example of convergent evolution. </p>
<p>We found beak size and shape varied between albatross species, making it a useful tool for identifying species that otherwise look similar. </p>
<p>Beaks also varied between species that eat either invertebrate prey, fish, or a mixture of both. Even in species that have similarly shaped beaks and diets, variations in beak size enable them to focus on prey of different sizes within the same category, such as small versus large fish. </p>
<p>The variation is most obvious in changes in the length and thickness of the beaks, but they can also vary in how the separate keratin pieces come together to make up the whole shape of the beak. These differences help albatross species to avoid competition with each other as they forage together over the open ocean. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542700/original/file-20230814-6385-8rvqxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A chart showing the results of 3D analysis showing how albatross species beaks can differ in both size and proportion." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542700/original/file-20230814-6385-8rvqxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542700/original/file-20230814-6385-8rvqxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542700/original/file-20230814-6385-8rvqxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542700/original/file-20230814-6385-8rvqxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542700/original/file-20230814-6385-8rvqxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542700/original/file-20230814-6385-8rvqxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542700/original/file-20230814-6385-8rvqxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">3D analysis shows how albatross species beaks can differ in both size and proportion. They also vary in how the keratin pieces fit together to make the overall shape of the bill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Josh Tyler</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<h2>A future for albatross?</h2>
<p>This research was made possible by the large collection of more than 750 albatross specimens preserved at the <a href="https://www.tmag.tas.gov.au">Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery</a>. </p>
<p>Almost all of these specimens came to the museum after being caught as bycatch in past longline fisheries, where bird carcasses were collected to identify which species were being captured on hooks. </p>
<p>Fortunately, improved fishing methods have reduced albatross bycatch, but this collection now remains as a valuable resource for new research like this into the biology of these birds.</p>
<p>Sadly, fisheries are not the only threat these extraordinary birds face. The first European record of an albatross from 1593 tells us how the bird was captured, killed and eaten. Today, of the 22 albatross species, two are considered <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org">critically endangered, seven species are endangered</a>, and a further six species are considered vulnerable. </p>
<p>Albatross are still frequent victims of <a href="https://theconversation.com/dolphins-turtles-and-birds-dont-have-to-die-in-fishing-gear-skilled-fishers-can-avoid-it-180548">fisheries bycatch</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/plastic-in-the-ocean-kills-more-threatened-albatrosses-than-we-thought-154925">plastic pollution</a>, and introduced predators on their breeding islands. </p>
<p>Like most wildlife species, the persistent <a href="https://theconversation.com/antarcticas-emperor-penguins-could-be-extinct-by-2100-and-other-species-may-follow-if-we-dont-act-196563">threat of climate change</a> looms large, as the world’s oceans warm and alter their habitat and the abundance of their prey.</p>
<p>Despite their evolutionary marvels and remarkable adaptations to the harshest ocean on Earth, the albatross serves as a poignant reminder of nature’s fragility. It is our duty to ensure their wings continue to soar above our oceans for generations to come.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542701/original/file-20230814-24-fj643c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo showing the southern Royal albatross in flight, side view with outstretched wings against a pale blue sky and hillside" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542701/original/file-20230814-24-fj643c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542701/original/file-20230814-24-fj643c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542701/original/file-20230814-24-fj643c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542701/original/file-20230814-24-fj643c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542701/original/file-20230814-24-fj643c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542701/original/file-20230814-24-fj643c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542701/original/file-20230814-24-fj643c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The southern Royal albatross (<em>Diomedea epomophora</em>) in flight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie McInnes</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/plastic-in-the-ocean-kills-more-threatened-albatrosses-than-we-thought-154925">Plastic in the ocean kills more threatened albatrosses than we thought</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Younger receives funding from National Geographic Society and WIRES.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Josh Tyler receives funding from the Evolution Education Trust.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Hocking does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Just as Darwin’s finches evolved specialised beaks to target prey, 3D modelling of 61 museum specimens reveals albatross beaks vary in size and shape for different diets. They can also drink seawater.
Jane Younger, Lecturer, Southern Ocean Vertebrate Ecology, University of Tasmania
David Hocking, Adjunct Research Associate, Monash University
Josh Tyler, Postgraduate Research Student, Department of Life Sciences, University of Bath
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205409
2023-06-01T01:49:59Z
2023-06-01T01:49:59Z
A new virtual museum reveals 600 million years of Australian fossils in unprecedented 3D detail
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529254/original/file-20230531-23-7wcrs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=362%2C188%2C1808%2C1176&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Virtual Australian Museum of Palaeontology</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/disciplines/palaeontology">Palaeontology</a> is the study of evolution and prehistoric life, usually preserved as fossils in rocks. It combines aspects of geology with biology and many other scientific disciplines. </p>
<p>But a lot of palaeontology really is about rocks. For 200 years, hammers and chisels have been some of its most commonly used tools. </p>
<p>However, advances in modern scanning technology are revolutionising the way we do palaeontology. Precise scans of the internal and external features of fossils let us see them in new ways.</p>
<p>And these digitised scans can readily be made available to the public online. At the new <a href="https://sites.flinders.edu.au/vamp/">Virtual Australian Museum of Palaeontology</a>, we offer free access to 600 million years of digital Australian fossils, from enigmatic early lifeforms to gigantic extinct marsupials.</p>
<h2>How do palaeontologists learn about the past?</h2>
<p>There are many different types of fossils. For example, a dinosaur leg bone can become a fossil, but so can a leaf from a tree, the footprint of an extinct kangaroo, poo from a shark, or even geochemical traces preserved in ancient soils. </p>
<p>The field of palaeontology was formally solidified into scientific enquiry by people such as Georges Cuvier (1769-1832). Cuvier was a French naturalist and zoologist sometimes referred to as the “founding father of palaeontology”. Others such as the Scottish geologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875) gave us the geological framework through which fossils could be classified and compared. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man digging up fossils" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527172/original/file-20230519-29-hgzees.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527172/original/file-20230519-29-hgzees.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527172/original/file-20230519-29-hgzees.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527172/original/file-20230519-29-hgzees.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527172/original/file-20230519-29-hgzees.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527172/original/file-20230519-29-hgzees.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527172/original/file-20230519-29-hgzees.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palaeontologist Aaron Camens digging up fossils.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aaron Camens</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Palaeontology has come a long way in the past 200 years. </p>
<p>Records of long-extinct animals also survive in the rock art and oral traditions of First Nations peoples. These are increasingly being recognised as an important complement to traditional Eurocentric approaches. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/of-bunyips-and-other-beasts-living-memories-of-long-extinct-creatures-in-art-and-stories-113031">Of bunyips and other beasts: living memories of long-extinct creatures in art and stories</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How to scan a fossil</h2>
<p>Different kinds of scanning technology are playing an increasing role in palaeontology. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CT_scan">Computed tomography</a>, or CT scanning, uses x-rays to create three-dimensional models of the internal and external features of dense objects.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526921/original/file-20230517-23-hksywx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four images showing stages of creating a 3D model of a fossil fish" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526921/original/file-20230517-23-hksywx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526921/original/file-20230517-23-hksywx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526921/original/file-20230517-23-hksywx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526921/original/file-20230517-23-hksywx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526921/original/file-20230517-23-hksywx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526921/original/file-20230517-23-hksywx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526921/original/file-20230517-23-hksywx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A photo of a fossil fish (far left), an x-ray image (middle left), a ‘tomogram’ or slice through the scan data (middle right), and a 3D virtual model (far right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alice Clement</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other imaging methods include <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photogrammetry">photogrammetry</a>, or surface scanning using lasers or projected patterns of light. These methods capture the external three-dimensional shape of an object or site, sometimes with colour and textural detail. They also have the advantage of being more portable and can often be taken directly to the fossil.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A photo of a man holding a device that illuminates a fossil with a bright purple light" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526919/original/file-20230517-22090-5xhdxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526919/original/file-20230517-22090-5xhdxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526919/original/file-20230517-22090-5xhdxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526919/original/file-20230517-22090-5xhdxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526919/original/file-20230517-22090-5xhdxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526919/original/file-20230517-22090-5xhdxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526919/original/file-20230517-22090-5xhdxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palaeontologist Jacob van Zoelen using a surface scanner on a fossil marsupial skull.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alice Clement</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most powerful scanning methods are the synchrotron and neutron imaging. A synchrotron works on the same principles as CT scanning, using radiation to look inside an object, but uses much stronger radiation. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_tomography">Neutron imaging</a> uses neutrons instead of x-rays or other radiation, and it can be useful for particularly dense or large objects. </p>
<p>These advances in scanning technology are opening up whole new avenues for exploring, sharing and analysing Australia’s unique fossils. Now what to do with all our digital palaeontology data?</p>
<p>That’s where the <a href="https://sites.flinders.edu.au/vamp/">Virtual Australian Museum of Palaeontology</a> comes in. </p>
<h2>About the museum</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526922/original/file-20230517-12177-2p1a5i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo of a woman standing outdoors holding two pieces of rock containing a fossil" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526922/original/file-20230517-12177-2p1a5i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526922/original/file-20230517-12177-2p1a5i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526922/original/file-20230517-12177-2p1a5i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526922/original/file-20230517-12177-2p1a5i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526922/original/file-20230517-12177-2p1a5i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526922/original/file-20230517-12177-2p1a5i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526922/original/file-20230517-12177-2p1a5i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palaeontologist Alice Clement in the field with a new fossil discovery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alice Clement</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We are a group of researchers at Flinders University, working with the South Australian Museum, the Western Australian Museum, and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Between us, we have spent many hours scanning, processing and uploading hundreds of three-dimensional virtual models. </p>
<p>Australia is geologically old with a rich fossil heritage. We are fortunate to have captured high-quality examples spanning nearly 600 million years of evolution on our continent. </p>
<p>We have scans of some of the earliest complex life from Ediacaran and Cambrian sites from over 500 million years ago. We have exquisite examples from <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/jgs/article/179/1/jgs2021-105/608194/The-Gogo-Formation-Lagerstatte-a-view-of-Australia">the best ancient fish deposit in the world</a>, and many amazing extinct megafauna not known from anywhere else.</p>
<p>Examples include the marsupial lion <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208020"><em>Thylacoleo</em></a>, the giant wombat-like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diprotodon"><em>Diprotodon</em></a>, and huge short-faced kangaroos such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sthenurus"><em>Sthenurus</em></a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Reconstructions of common Australian megafauna in an open bush setting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528478/original/file-20230526-17-dub84d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528478/original/file-20230526-17-dub84d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528478/original/file-20230526-17-dub84d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528478/original/file-20230526-17-dub84d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528478/original/file-20230526-17-dub84d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528478/original/file-20230526-17-dub84d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528478/original/file-20230526-17-dub84d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many giant creatures that once roamed Australia are now known only from fossils.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Trusler</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the pilot phase of this project we have digitised more than 500 fossils across more than 30 genera. Some highlights include: </p>
<ol>
<li>one of the world’s most complete marsupial lion skeletons (almost every bone from the skull to the toe bones)</li>
<li>one of the only known bones of a pterosaur (flying reptile) from South Australia</li>
<li>scans of one of the oldest known sharks in the world</li>
<li>fossil mammal footprints that are now known only from our digital data, as the original trackways have been destroyed.</li>
</ol>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526925/original/file-20230517-10717-icqnfp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A collage shows six digital models of fossils accompanied by silhouette drawings of the animals they came from" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526925/original/file-20230517-10717-icqnfp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526925/original/file-20230517-10717-icqnfp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526925/original/file-20230517-10717-icqnfp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526925/original/file-20230517-10717-icqnfp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526925/original/file-20230517-10717-icqnfp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526925/original/file-20230517-10717-icqnfp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526925/original/file-20230517-10717-icqnfp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Six digital models of scanned fossil specimens from the museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Virtual Australian Museum of Palaeontology</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>You can explore the <a href="https://sites.flinders.edu.au/vamp/">VAMP website</a> yourself. All you need to dig into a world of 3D fossil scans is a computer or a smartphone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205409/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Clement receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is employed by Flinders University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Camens works for Flinders University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacob van Zoelen is employed by Flinders University.</span></em></p>
Digital scanning offers a new window on Australia’s unique fossil history, from early multicellular lifeforms to gigantic ‘marsupial lions’.
Alice Clement, Research Associate in the College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University
Aaron Camens, Lecturer in Palaeontology, Flinders University
Jacob van Zoelen, PhD Candidate, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198198
2023-02-06T21:00:48Z
2023-02-06T21:00:48Z
Newport ship: after 20 years’ work, experts are ready to reassemble medieval vessel found in the mud
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508112/original/file-20230203-16-3271x0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C13%2C4426%2C3301&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An artistic impression of how the Newport Medieval ship may have looked . </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Jordan/Newport Museums and Heritage Service</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When construction work began on a new arts centre in Newport, south Wales, in 2002, the builders on site could scarcely have imagined what they would dig up. While excavating the foundations on the banks of the River Usk, a section of a medieval wooden ship was uncovered which had been perfectly preserved by the river’s waterlogged silt. Archaeologists were called in and it soon became clear the vessel was extraordinary. </p>
<p>This was not a coastal sailing boat that would have plied the Severn estuary up to the 19th century. Rather, it was a “great ship” by medieval standards, one that would have worked the long-distance routes of the Atlantic and Mediterranean. And yet, there it was, or at least a part of it, lying in an old slipway in what would have been a small Welsh port with a population of about 500 people during the Middle Ages.</p>
<p>The ship’s remains quickly caught the public’s imagination, with large numbers of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2195072.stm">local people visiting the wreck</a>. It was a reminder that while Newport is best known historically as a 19th-century iron town, the city has a long history intimately connected to the sea. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507861/original/file-20230202-7334-wj9b1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people wearing hard hats and high-visibility vests stand within a construction site on timber planks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507861/original/file-20230202-7334-wj9b1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507861/original/file-20230202-7334-wj9b1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507861/original/file-20230202-7334-wj9b1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507861/original/file-20230202-7334-wj9b1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507861/original/file-20230202-7334-wj9b1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507861/original/file-20230202-7334-wj9b1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507861/original/file-20230202-7334-wj9b1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Newport medieval ship as it looked in September 2002, months after construction workers made the discovery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Newport_ship.jpg">Owain</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So it was perhaps inevitable that <a href="https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/15479544.15-years-on-how-newports-medieval-ship-was-found-and-how-it-was-saved/">locals were outraged</a> when they learned “their” ship was simply going to be recorded where it sat, before being sampled and then bulldozed. The price tag just seemed too great; preserving the remains would take decades and cost millions. </p>
<p>Excavations of other ships, such as <a href="https://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/site-attractions/attractions/the-mary-rose">Henry VIII’s Mary Rose</a>, had shown how expensive it would be. But <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2191881.stm">local passion and campaigning</a> outweighed such considerations and plans eventually changed. The ship would be saved. </p>
<p>Twenty years later and the task of excavating, preserving and recording all the timbers and artefacts is nearly complete. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64151535">Attention is now turning to the reconstruction of the remains</a> and consideration of how best to display the ship in the future.</p>
<p>Since its discovery, we have found out so much more about the Newport ship. It is not like the <a href="https://maryrose.org/">Mary Rose</a> or the <a href="https://www.vasamuseet.se/en">Vasa</a>, a 17th-century Swedish warship recovered in 1961. Both are complete vessels, full of artefacts. The Newport ship is the surviving part of a vessel that was wrecked while undergoing maintenance in a dry dock. </p>
<p>Most of the contents, and almost all of the upper parts of the structure, were salvaged and removed before a medieval slipway was built on top. So, only part of the hull remains intact. However, that fragment is important both because it is wonderfully preserved and because is the largest and most complete section of a 15th-century European ship discovered to date. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507869/original/file-20230202-7395-ymlash.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Planks of wood lie in water within large but shallow yellow baths inside a big warehouse." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507869/original/file-20230202-7395-ymlash.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507869/original/file-20230202-7395-ymlash.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507869/original/file-20230202-7395-ymlash.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507869/original/file-20230202-7395-ymlash.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507869/original/file-20230202-7395-ymlash.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507869/original/file-20230202-7395-ymlash.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507869/original/file-20230202-7395-ymlash.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The timbers of the Newport medieval ship undergo conservation in April 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/15303">Robin Drayton/Geograph</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Also, dendrochronology (the scientific method of dating tree rings to the year they were formed), has made it possible to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1095-9270.12052">pinpoint that the ship was built in 1450 in the Basque country</a>. The same techniques, when applied to the collapsed scaffolding used to hold the ship in place, can tell us when it was wrecked to within a year (1468). This has made it possible to situate the vessel within an eventful period, at the dawn of Europe’s age of discovery and the Wars of the Roses.</p>
<p>The Newport Medieval ship represents the final flourish of a shipbuilding tradition that stretched back centuries. This involved the construction of a shell, made from overlapping planks, into which a relatively light frame was fitted to provide stability. </p>
<p>It has more in common with Viking longships than it has with the skeleton-built ships of the early modern period. But the Newport ship is far bigger than Viking vessels. In its heyday it was capable of carrying 160 tuns (about 320,000 pints) of wine in its hold, on a voyage from Bordeaux.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Very old, silver coin lodged within a piece of timber" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508303/original/file-20230206-25-ecp2yc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508303/original/file-20230206-25-ecp2yc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508303/original/file-20230206-25-ecp2yc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508303/original/file-20230206-25-ecp2yc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508303/original/file-20230206-25-ecp2yc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508303/original/file-20230206-25-ecp2yc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508303/original/file-20230206-25-ecp2yc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A ‘petit blanc’ small French coin was found within the keel of the Newport Ship.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Newport Museums and Heritage Service</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the most positive aspects of the project has been the way archaeologists, curators, scientists and other experts have collaborated. A team of historians I gathered <a href="https://www.uwp.co.uk/book/the-world-of-the-newport-medieval-ship/">examined the context of the ship</a> to better understand the world it came from. </p>
<p>New recording techniques were pioneered too, including the <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/newport-medieval-ship-timber-recording-manual-digital-recording-of-ship-timbers-using-a-faroarm-3d-digitiser-faro-arm-laser-line-probe-and-rhinoceros-3d-software-with-sections-on-modelling-and-metrical-data/oclc/759825236">3D scanning of every timber</a>. This made it possible to digitally reconstruct (and even 3D print at scale) the whole vessel. In many ways, it was fitted back together long before the real timbers even touched each other. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/746482760" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A digital reconstruction of the final journey made by the Newport Ship.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most recently, the project curator, Toby Jones, has worked with the <a href="https://www.newportship.org">Friends of the Newport Ship</a> charity to produce complex visual reconstructions of the vessel. 3D animated films are being used to communicate the nature of the vessel to the public, as well as providing experts with fresh avenues of research to explore.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198198/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evan Jones received £2000 from Newport City Council / The Friends of the Newport Ship to cover part of the costs for holding a conference on 'The World of the Newport Medieval Ship' in 2014. Both bodies also made contributions (totaling £3,114) towards the publication costs of the subsequent book 'The World of the Newport Medieval Ship' (University of Wales Press, 2018). </span></em></p>
The Newport medieval ship is the most complete section of a 15th-century European vessel discovered to date.
Evan Jones, Associate professor, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/156668
2021-03-09T16:32:00Z
2021-03-09T16:32:00Z
Tyrannosaurus rex didn’t get its ferocious bite until it was an adult - new research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388279/original/file-20210308-13-ebzk93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C53%2C5883%2C4589&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ferocious dinosaur.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/tyrannosaurus-rex-scene-3d-illustration-1099958171">Shutterstock/Warpaint</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em> is one of the most well known of all the dinosaurs, particularly notable for its ferocious jaws. </p>
<p>Adult tyrannosaurs – including the species <em>T. rex</em> – used a “puncture-pull” biting technique, in which they bit down and swallowed chunks of flesh and bone. But, it turns out, young tyrannosaurs didn’t possess the deep jaws necessary to undertake such a bite. Their jaws weren’t equipped to deal with the significant stresses of biting in this way. </p>
<p>In a new study, my colleague Eric Snively of Oklahoma State University and I examined how tyrannosaur feeding strategies may have changed as they got older. In doing so, we uncovered several interesting aspects of the <em>T. rex’s</em> biology. </p>
<h2>Engineering a jaw</h2>
<p>We used 3D models of various tyrannosaur jaws at different stages of growth. We were fortunate enough to have a 3D scan of <em>Raptorex</em> – a small juvenile tyrannosaur from Mongolia – which we used as a stand-in for a very young <em>T. rex</em>, of approximately three- to six-years-old at death. </p>
<p>We also used 3D models of the adolescent <em>T. rex</em> nicknamed “Jane”, housed at the Burpee Museum in Rockford, Illinois, and the adult <em>T. rex</em> nicknamed “Sue”, housed at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. </p>
<p>These specimens are notable for their completeness, which makes them ideal for these kind of studies. We didn’t need to use guesswork to fill in any missing materials in our 3D models. </p>
<p>We applied virtual muscles to our tyrannosaur jaws and used engineering tools to simulate tyrannosaur bites. Then, we studied the stresses that would occur in their jaws during these hypothetical feeding scenarios. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Skeletons of four tyrannosaur on display in museums." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388305/original/file-20210308-23-x4hpbm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388305/original/file-20210308-23-x4hpbm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388305/original/file-20210308-23-x4hpbm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388305/original/file-20210308-23-x4hpbm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388305/original/file-20210308-23-x4hpbm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388305/original/file-20210308-23-x4hpbm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388305/original/file-20210308-23-x4hpbm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The four tyrannosaurid specimens tested.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andre Rowe</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The type of analysis we used – called finite element analysis – is usually applied to assess the safety of solid structures seen in everyday life, like bridges and planes. In recent years, it’s become increasingly popular in zoology and palaeontology for studying animal skeletons.</p>
<p>Our study found that the jaws of small tyrannosaurs experienced lower stress overall because muscle forces were relatively lower than in larger adults. But the slender juvenile jaws experienced greater stresses when they were adjusted to the length of the adult jaws.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-top-six-dinosaur-myths-and-how-we-busted-them-59031">The top six dinosaur myths and how we busted them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This means the broad, deeply-set lower jaw found in adult <em>T. rex</em> was integral to its powerful bite. The slender jaws of the juveniles may have been damaged if they kept the same shape as they matured.</p>
<p>We also found that a muscle at the back of the jaw – the pterygoid – increased compressive stresses on a bone at the back of the jaw while decreasing bending stresses near the front of the jaw. </p>
<p>These reduced stresses on the front of the jaw are consistent with the highly robust teeth at the front, where the tyrannosaurs may have applied their highest impact bite forces. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three scans of _T. rex_ lower jaws." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388285/original/file-20210308-23-y9e00.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388285/original/file-20210308-23-y9e00.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388285/original/file-20210308-23-y9e00.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388285/original/file-20210308-23-y9e00.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388285/original/file-20210308-23-y9e00.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388285/original/file-20210308-23-y9e00.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388285/original/file-20210308-23-y9e00.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hotter colours show higher stress on the lower jaws. From top to bottom, Raptorex, juvenile <em>T. rex</em> and adult <em>T. rex</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andre Rowe</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A big bite</h2>
<p>Based on our findings, and previous research about tyrannosaur agility and its hunting methods, we believe juvenile T. rex may have played a separate role in their ecosystem compared to the adults. Juveniles were probably pursuing smaller prey with a slashing bite, while the adults were feeding on large herbivorous dinosaurs like <em>Triceratops</em>, as is commonly depicted in popular culture.</p>
<p>Our extensive knowledge about <em>T. rex</em> exists because a relatively large number of nearly complete specimens have been unearthed. Recent bite force estimates for adult <em>T. rex</em> have placed it <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/9192/">as high as 60,000 newtons</a> – for reference, saltwater crocodiles <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/120315-crocodiles-bite-force-erickson-science-plos-one-strongest">bite down at 16,000 newtons</a>. </p>
<p>In the future, I’d like to see more fossil material, especially complete skulls and jaws, being scanned. Tools like 3D scanning and editing are wonderful for studying both living and extinct animals. </p>
<p>While our study focused on dinosaurs, these methods can be applied to any group of animals with complete skull material. It would be lovely to see studies like these carried out on other extinct vertebrates, such as the marine reptiles that thrived during the times of the dinosaurs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156668/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andre J. Rowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Our new study has found younger tyrannosaurs would have hunted small prey.
Andre J. Rowe, PhD Candidate in Geology, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/156588
2021-03-09T14:41:23Z
2021-03-09T14:41:23Z
New study reveals the secrets of an ancient, extinct super predator
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387975/original/file-20210305-15-zkzup4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A live reconstruction of Anteosaurus attacking a herbivorous Moschognathus.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Artwork by Alex Bernardini @SimplexPaléo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some 260 million to 265 million years ago, a huge creature called <em>Anteosaurus</em> roamed what is today the African continent. This period was known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Permian-Period">middle Permian</a> – and <em>Anteosaurus</em> was one of its most ferocious carnivores. It had massive, bone-crushing teeth, a gigantic skull and a powerful jaw.</p>
<p>Despite its name, <em>Anteosaurus</em> was not a dinosaur. It belonged to the <a href="http://palaeos.com/vertebrates/therapsida/dinocephalia.html">dinocephalians</a>, a family of mammal like reptiles that predated the dinosaurs. Much like the dinosaurs, dinocephalians roamed and ruled the earth at one stage. But they originated, thrived, and died about 30 million years before the first dinosaur even existed.</p>
<p>The fossilised bones of dinocephalians are found in many places in the world. They stand out because of their large size and heaviness. Dinocephalian bones are thick and dense, and <em>Anteosaurus</em> is no exception. Its skull was ornamented with large bosses (bumps and lumps) above the eyes and a long crest on top of the snout. This, along with its enlarged canines, made it look like a truly ferocious creature.</p>
<p>But because of its skeleton’s heavy architecture, scientists have always assumed that <em>Anteosaurus</em> was a rather sluggish, slow-moving animal, only capable of scavenging or ambushing its prey, at best. Some scientists even suggested that <em>Anteosaurus</em> was so heavy that it must have lived in water.</p>
<p>Now our team of palaeontologists from South Africa and Europe has been able to <a href="http://app.pan.pl/archive/published/app66/app008002020.pdf">re-assess</a> <em>Anteosaurus’s</em> hunting capabilities. Our findings show that <em>Anteosaurus’s</em> nervous system and fine-tuned sense organs were optimised for hunting swiftly and striking fast, like the cheetah or the long-extinct, infamous velociraptor. Contrary to what’s long been believed, <em>Anteosaurus</em> was no primitive, sluggish creature: it was nothing short of a mighty prehistoric killing machine.</p>
<h2>Technology offers a new view</h2>
<p>We used x-ray imaging and 3D reconstructions to better understand what <em>Anteosaurus’s</em> nervous system would have looked like. As <em>Anteosaurus</em> is a very large animal, most specimens would be too big to fit into most CT scanner, so we used a specimen that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772019.2016.1276106">was found</a> many years ago in South Africa’s Karoo region with its bones disarticulated. In this way, we were able to scan each bone independently and to digitally reconstruct the skull completely afterwards, using the powerful computers at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387976/original/file-20210305-15-1tycshp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387976/original/file-20210305-15-1tycshp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387976/original/file-20210305-15-1tycshp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387976/original/file-20210305-15-1tycshp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387976/original/file-20210305-15-1tycshp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387976/original/file-20210305-15-1tycshp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387976/original/file-20210305-15-1tycshp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The skull of Anteosaurus next to that of a modern human.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We were then able to investigate its internal structures. <em>Anteosaurus’s</em> organ of balance, its inner ear, was found to be relatively larger than that of its closest relatives and other predators living contemporaneously. This indicates that <em>Anteosaurus</em> was capable of moving much faster than its prey and competitors. We also found that the part of the brain responsible for coordinating the movements of the eyes with the head was exceptionally large. This would have been a crucial trait to ensure the animal’s tracking abilities. Its agility, as we pointed out in <a href="http://app.pan.pl/archive/published/app66/app008002020.pdf">the paper</a>, could be compared to that of the North American mountain lion, or cougar.</p>
<p>Taken together, all of these findings show that <em>Anteosaurus’s</em> nervous system was specialised and optimised so the animal could hunt swiftly and strike fast. Its prey would have included large herbivores like <em>Moschognathus</em>, small lizard-like animals, large amphibians or even other carnivores.</p>
<h2>Changing our understanding</h2>
<p>Dinosaurs were once believed to be slow-moving, sluggish animals living in swamps, and unable to move their body outside water for a long time. They were considered “primitive” and doomed to become extinct. Since then, the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dinosaur-renaissance/">Dinosaur Renaissance</a> has proved that these preconceived ideas about dinosaurs were wrong – now dinosaurs have become more alive than ever in people’s imaginations. This improved understanding was also a gateway to finally understanding that <a href="https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evograms_06">birds are the direct descendants of dinosaurs</a>.</p>
<p><em>Anteosaurus</em> belongs to the pre-mammalian reptiles, an extinct group of animals that ultimately evolved into the ancestors of mammals. New imaging techniques are reshaping our understanding of these old animals’ biology, which is essential to better grasping our own origins as mammals. This study of <em>Anteosaurus</em> contributes to rewriting the narrative of pre-mammalian evolution; like the Dinosaur Renaissance, this has the potential to shed new light on our mammalian origins.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156588/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julien Benoit receives funding from the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences.</span></em></p>
Because of its skeleton’s heavy architecture, scientists have always assumed that Anteosaurus was a rather sluggish, slow-moving animal, only capable of scavenging or ambushing its prey, at best.
Julien Benoit, Senior Researcher in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/130973
2020-10-20T11:33:59Z
2020-10-20T11:33:59Z
Radiotherapy tattoos can be a painful reminder of cancer – but 3D imaging could be the solution
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364454/original/file-20201020-21-jnt9zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5455%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Radiotherapy tattoos help ensure a patient is properly placed beneath the machine.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-receiving-radiation-therapy-treatments-1095820514">Mark_Kostich/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every day in the UK over 150 women will be given the devastating news that they have <a href="https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/breast-cancer#heading-Zero">breast cancer</a>. This is the start of a long journey of treatments that usually involves surgery to remove the tumour – most likely followed by radiotherapy to the <a href="https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/breast-cancer/treatment/radiotherapy">breast or chest wall</a>. What many people might not realise though is that radiographers often <a href="https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/breast-cancer/treatment/radiotherapy/planning-radiotherapy">use small permanent black ink tattoos</a> in order to position a patient underneath the radiotherapy machine. These small tattoos are placed on the patient’s breast bone, and at points across the thorax. While these <a href="https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/radiotherapy/external/planning/skin-markings">tattoos are small</a> (about one to two millimetres in diameter), they are permanent. The patient will have these tattoos for the rest of their lives, long after any surgical scars have faded.</p>
<p>But new technology, called <a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/surface-guidance-a-new-tool-for-radiotherapy/">surface guided radiotherapy</a> (SGRT), uses three dimensional imaging to help radiographers position patients, avoiding the need for tattoos. A 3D image is first taken as part of the planning for treatment. This image is then used prior to each radiotherapy session to ensure the patient is in the correct position. This also means that patients can be positioned underneath the radiotherapy machine without using tattoos. As with many new technologies though, it can be costly.</p>
<h2>Permanent ink</h2>
<p>In the 1980s it was common for patients having radiotherapy for breast cancer to be marked with semi-permanent ink. But these could rub off onto the patient’s clothes or when showering. If semi-permanent marks fade or need reapplying, there’s a potential for the marks to be redrawn differently, which could affect the accuracy of radiotherapy. Concerns over these semi-permanent marks disappearing before the patient had completed the full course of radiotherapy led to the gradual use of permanent tattoos as standard. For most patients with breast cancer, around <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1078817419301142">three permanent tattoos</a> are currently used for treatment on average. </p>
<p>However, a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1078817405001094">study of over 300 women</a> randomised to have either permanent tattoos or semi-permanent marks, no differences in accuracy was found between the skin marking methods. In 2018, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer and needed to undergo radiotherapy myself, I was keen to avoid having permanent tattoos. I opted to have a semi-permanent ink mark on my breast bone that was covered with a water-proof dressing. Semi-permanent marks have the advantage of disappearing once treatment is finished – but again, their disadvantage is that they could wash off, which means patients need to be careful when showering during the three to four weeks of treatment. Many patients are also rarely given an option to have <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1078817419301142">semi-permanent marks</a>. The default is to tattoo patients.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A small radiotherapy tattoo on a person's arm." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364457/original/file-20201020-14-19j5xvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364457/original/file-20201020-14-19j5xvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364457/original/file-20201020-14-19j5xvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364457/original/file-20201020-14-19j5xvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364457/original/file-20201020-14-19j5xvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364457/original/file-20201020-14-19j5xvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364457/original/file-20201020-14-19j5xvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A permanent tattoo similar to this would be placed on the patient’s breast bone and thorax.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/point-tattoo-left-arm-made-treatment-1359489935">felipequeiroz/ Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other skin marking methods have been tried, including the use of ultraviolet tattoos that would only be visible in black light. These aren’t without their disadvantages, as a <a href="https://www.birpublications.org/doi/10.1259/bjr.20160288">recent trial found</a>. Researchers discovered UV tattoos were difficult to see on the two patients with sub-Saharan skin tones. UV Tattoos might also be visible under black lighting conditions in bars or restaurants, making it an undesirable option for many.</p>
<p>Surface Guided RadioTherapy methods have been shown to have better positioning accuracy than permanent tattoos. <a href="https://www.radiographyonline.com/article/S1078-8174(19)30185-3/fulltext">One study found</a> permanent tattoos required positioning corrections in 28% of cases, compared with just 7.7% of cases when Surface Guided RadioTherapy was used. Surface Guided RadioTherapy also reduced the time required for positioning on average of one minute and seven seconds per patient. Over the course of a day, this small time savings could equate to an additional four patients per radiotherapy machine being able to be treated. This is significant, given radiotherapy resources are limited.</p>
<h2>Emotional experience</h2>
<p>Of most concern, though, is the distress that tattoos can have on some women during what can be an already distressing treatment journey. In an <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tbj.13591">online survey</a> of breast cancer patients, 78% said they would choose a treatment where they didn’t have to have skin marks or tattoos, even if that meant they had to travel farther to have radiotherapy.</p>
<p>As part of our <a href="https://youtu.be/TMaIFw5SfsY">ongoing research</a>, <a href="https://www.radiographyonline.com/article/S1078-8174(20)30198-X/pdf">we asked women who had been through radiotherapy</a> about their thoughts on permanent tattoos. Women reported a range of different experiences, emotions and knowledge about the use of tattoos. A few women didn’t mind having the tattoos. But others often experienced lack of choice, disempowerment, and the realisation of the enormity of the cancer, given it required a permanent mark.</p>
<p>For me, having to have a permanent tattoo visible in the middle of my chest was not about having a permanent reminder of the cancer. It was more about being able to go back to wearing the clothes I have always worn, about going back to the gym, about sun bathing on holiday, about trips to the spa without having to worry about a radiotherapy tattoo being visible to others for questions. Sometimes, you don’t want to have to explain to inquisitive people why you have a black dot on your chest, you just want to get on with living. </p>
<p>Surface guided radiotherapy is a non-invasive technology that allows accurate positioning of patients for breast cancer radiotherapy that leaves no permanent marker of cancer treatment. This will give many patients the opportunity to get on with living once treatment has finished.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130973/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heidi Probst received funding from the National Institute for Health Research Invention 4 Innovation Fund for the SuPPORT 4 All project.</span></em></p>
Tattoos might be the norm, but Surface Guided RadioTherapy for breast cancer is both more accurate, and doesn’t require a permanent mark.
Heidi Probst, Professor of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Sheffield Hallam University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126449
2019-12-03T10:57:24Z
2019-12-03T10:57:24Z
3D printing is helping museums in repatriation and decolonisation efforts
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304908/original/file-20191203-67023-oxqj8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tenerife-spain-february-8-2019-tourist-1366182653">David Herraez Calzada / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Manchester Museum recently <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-50504511">returned items</a> taken from Australia more than 100 years ago to Aboriginal leaders, the latest move in an <a href="https://theconversation.com/returning-looted-artefacts-will-finally-restore-heritage-to-the-brilliant-cultures-that-made-them-107479">ongoing debate</a> over calls to “repatriate” museum artefacts to their countries of origin.</p>
<p>It’s part of a wider discussion over to what degree museums need to reform and “<a href="https://theconversation.com/decolonise-science-time-to-end-another-imperial-era-89189">decolonise</a>” away from displaying collections that were gathered or stolen from other countries during the colonial era, in a way that portrays foreign cultures as strange or inferior and other nations as unsuitable possessors of the world’s cultural heritage and knowledge. Major institutions including the <a href="https://theconversation.com/britain-has-kept-the-elgin-marbles-for-200-years-now-its-time-to-pass-them-on-55912">British Museum</a> and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/jun/29/should-museums-return-their-colonial-artefacts">Victoria & Albert Museum</a> have been caught up in the debate.</p>
<p>One way forward may be found in digital technologies that can enable people to access representations of other cultures in fair, interesting ways, without cultural institutions needing to hold on to controversial artefacts. For example, with 3D imaging and 3D printing we can produce <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-3d-printing-is-transforming-our-relationship-with-cultural-heritage-112642">digital and physical copies of artefacts</a>, allowing visitors to study and interact with them more closely than ever before.</p>
<h2>Copying artefacts</h2>
<p>Copying artefacts has a surprisingly long history. Many ancient Greek statues that we have today are actually <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rogr/hd_rogr.htm">Roman copies</a> made hundreds of years after the originals. Famous Renaissance artists’ workshops regularly <a href="http://www.italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-3/essays/training-and-practice/">produced copies</a> of artwork. In the 19th century, museums produced copies through processes that involved making a mould of the original item, such as casting and <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/explore/glossary-of-art-terms/electrotyping">electrotyping</a>. The famous <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-flat-pack-a-dinosaur-70966">diplodocus skeleton “Dippy”</a> actually exists as a number of copies in museums all over the world. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301285/original/file-20191112-178511-g0oqqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301285/original/file-20191112-178511-g0oqqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301285/original/file-20191112-178511-g0oqqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301285/original/file-20191112-178511-g0oqqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301285/original/file-20191112-178511-g0oqqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301285/original/file-20191112-178511-g0oqqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301285/original/file-20191112-178511-g0oqqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Copy of Myron’s Discobolus at the Vatican Museums in Rome.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">By Leomudde - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, digital technology has democratised the art of copying so it isn’t limited to big museums with generous budgets or top experts with specialist knowledge. Accessible digitisation technologies, such as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/photogrammetry">photogrammetry</a> and 3D scanning, can digitally record the shape of objects to a good degree of accuracy. And 3D printing and cutting machines can physically reproduce this digital information at an affordable cost.</p>
<p>3D copies can be touched and handled by visitors and can also be customised in shape, material and size. What’s more, digital files of artefacts can be shared online and replicas can be printed in other parts of the world. And most importantly, physically printing a copy from a digital image doesn’t depend on whether the original artefact still exists or not.</p>
<p>Some governments and institutions have supported the creation of copies by adopting these technologies. These include, just to name a few, the prehistoric cave engravings in <a href="https://www.lascaux.fr/en/prepare-your-visit/visit-lascaux/international-centre-for-cave-art#ancre-carousel">Lascaux IV</a> in France, Jackson Pollock’s 3D poured painting <a href="http://vcg.isti.cnr.it/alchemy/">Alchemy</a>, and the 900-year-old <a href="http://www.factum-arte.com/bronzeoak">Signing Oak Tree</a> from Windsor Great Park near London.</p>
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<h2>Democratising and repatriating heritage</h2>
<p>Once the digital information from an artefact is produced and shared, the knowledge the artefact represents is no longer locked up in a single museum and can potentially be accessed by many more people. Sceptics might argue that the value of the artefact cannot be reproduced by these means. But 3D technologies open up the possibility for democratising cultural heritage and creating alternative meanings by different groups of people.</p>
<p>3D technologies can also support museums to adapt to changing social, political, financial, environmental and other challenges. For instance, creating physical copies allows museums to repatriate artefacts to their communities of origin, or to display objects without having to transport them across the world. It can also be a starting point for talking to different communities about repatriation and decolonisation. All these actions can support museums through their transformation from colonial institutions to more modern and open organisations, helping them to become less bound to “original” artefacts. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Repatriation and Replication of the Tlingit Killer Whale Hat.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in the US has worked closely with the Tlingit native community of southeast Alaska, which requested the repatriation of several objects that were sacred to them. One of the most important objects was the <a href="https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/mar/article/view/2173">Killer Whale clan crest hat</a>, which the museum digitised and made an accurate replica of, before returning the original to the community.</p>
<p>3D copies have even been deployed in repatriation activism without the official involvement of museums or their approval. For the project <a href="http://nefertitihack.alloversky.com/">Nefertiti Hack</a>, artists Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles claimed that they secretly scanned the bust of Egyptian queen Nefertiti, held by the Neues Museum in Berlin, and freely released the 3D data online. A 3D replica of Nefertiti’s bust was also 3D printed and exhibited in Cairo. The artists argued their intention was to return Nefertiti to her homeland and criticised the colonialist practices of Western museums.</p>
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<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/148156899" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Museumshack – artists secretly scanning at the Neues Museum.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Moving forward</h2>
<p>The repatriation debate is forcing museums to rethink what and who they are for and how they can best serve society.</p>
<p>Some museums have taken decisions to <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/norway-will-repatriate-thousands-artifacts-taken-easter-island-180971846/">return artefacts to their homeland</a>, others to organise <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-australia-exhibition-at-the-british-museum-is-insider-activism-at-its-best-39098">exhibitions</a> dedicated to indigenous voices. Yet, in most cases, these efforts are scattered, or one-off events still infused with colonialist spirit. A more concerted effort to use 3D copying technologies could help overcome this. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301539/original/file-20191113-77300-2yeb1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301539/original/file-20191113-77300-2yeb1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301539/original/file-20191113-77300-2yeb1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301539/original/file-20191113-77300-2yeb1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301539/original/file-20191113-77300-2yeb1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301539/original/file-20191113-77300-2yeb1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301539/original/file-20191113-77300-2yeb1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">3D printed copy of Pot Oiseau produced for research at the University of Brighton. The original edition of Pot Oiseau by Pablo Picasso is exhibited at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some might argue that original artefacts have an “aura” that is impossible to recreate, and that looking at a copy just isn’t the same. But simply visiting a museum or a cultural heritage site is an <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02672571003780106">authentic experience</a> in its own way. And this doesn’t always have to depend on seeing <a href="http://diglib.eg.org/handle/10.2312/gch20191357">“original”</a> objects, as long as the museum is honest about its exhibitions and purposes. In future, museums will focus more on the experience of cultural heritage, while promoting universal values, regardless of where the artefacts are.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
New technology means museums can return items to their countries of origin while still representing those cultures in fair, interesting ways.
Myrsini Samaroudi, PhD Candidate, University of Brighton
Karina Rodriguez Echavarria, Principal Lecturer, University of Brighton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/123672
2019-09-19T11:19:38Z
2019-09-19T11:19:38Z
A digital archaeologist helps inaccessible collections be seen
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292889/original/file-20190917-19072-kxldh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Davide Tanasi scans an artifact from the Farid Karam collection.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Davide Tanasi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=171&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=171&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=171&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p><em>The Abstract features interesting research and the people behind it.</em></p>
<p>Davide Tanasi is a digital archaeologist at the University of South Florida. He creates highly detailed 3D scans of archaeological artifacts that can be viewed online or used to create 3D printed replicas.</p>
<hr>
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<p><strong>Why is it important to digitize these artifacts as 3D objects?</strong> </p>
<p>It helps spread knowledge about them and guarantees that they will be passed to future generations. For example, the USF Libraries <a href="https://digital.lib.usf.edu/karam">Farid Karam M.D. Lebanon Antiquities Collection</a> is one of the largest collection of Lebanese archaeological artifacts in the U.S. Some of the objects are 3,500 years old. Due to space and personnel restrictions, it was never exhibited and made fully available to the general public. Being unpublished, hardly accessible and poorly visible online, it basically does not exist. Our project to recreate the collection in 3D is called the <a href="http://virtualkaram.com">Virtual Karam Project</a>. It allows us to share those objects around the world, hopefully triggering interest to curate and display the collection. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293077/original/file-20190918-187957-d5bdfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293077/original/file-20190918-187957-d5bdfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293077/original/file-20190918-187957-d5bdfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293077/original/file-20190918-187957-d5bdfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293077/original/file-20190918-187957-d5bdfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293077/original/file-20190918-187957-d5bdfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293077/original/file-20190918-187957-d5bdfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Davide Tanasi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>How do you scan them?</strong></p>
<p>The 3D models of archaeological artifacts must be geometrically accurate to satisfy interested scholars but also realistic enough to engage the public. The “body” of the artifacts is captured with an ultra-precision 3D scanner integrated into a measuring robotic arm. The multicolored “skin” is acquired via a set of high quality digital photographs. From the combination of the two features comes the actual 3D model. </p>
<p><strong>How common is it for museums to create 3D images of their collections?</strong></p>
<p>The fire which recently destroyed the National Museum of Brazil was a global wake up call for curators to start plans for the 3D digitization of historical and archaeological collections. Plans not just for simple archiving and dissemination purposes but also to create a sister digital collection, which can be 3D printed and function as a “surrogate” in case the originals are destroyed. With the <a href="https://sketchfab.com/britishmuseum">British Museum</a> and the <a href="https://3d.si.edu/">Smithsonian Institution</a> leading the charge, it is becoming more common even for small museums to start virtualization projects for their collections.</p>
<p><strong>What other kinds of collections are you digitizing in this way?</strong></p>
<p>I’m working on the <a href="https://sketchfab.com/cvast/collections/tampa-museum-of-art">Joseph Veach Noble Collection</a> at the Tampa Museum of Art, a group of 150 artifacts, mostly high quality Greek black and red-figure pottery from Athens, Attica and South Italy. Another one of my projects involves the <a href="https://sketchfab.com/cvast/collections/di-cesnola-collection-ringling-museum">Luigi Palma di Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Antiquities</a>, which includes exquisite examples of ancient pottery and statues ranging between 2,500 B.C. to 400 A.D. Both collections are largely unpublished, only partly accessible to the local public, with poor digital representation. </p>
<p><strong>How do you hope people will use these digital collections?</strong></p>
<p>They are an advanced archival record for the museum. But the 3D models can also be built in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality experiences for the public. Digital replicas can also be used by scholars in every part of the world or to popularize archaeology or trigger interest towards a certain museum or site. Digital collections can also be integrated in the teaching curriculum at K-12 and university level for history, art history and anthropology.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Davide Tanasi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Davide Tanasi, a digital archaeologist, thinks it’s a pity when historical artifacts are locked away in storage. He’s working to fix this by sharing them as 3D models.
Davide Tanasi, Associate Professor of Digital Humanities, Department of History, University of South Florida
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/115867
2019-04-23T19:28:03Z
2019-04-23T19:28:03Z
Digital cathedrals: bringing Notre-Dame de Paris back to life
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270539/original/file-20190423-175539-12u9qld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C1375%2C759&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Notre-Dame de Paris in all its digital splendour -- virtual reality and immersive mediation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Art Graphique & Patrimoine</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The devastating fire at Notre-Dame de Paris <a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dame-de-paris-from-searing-emotion-to-the-future-rebirth-of-a-world-heritage-site-115612">sparked intense emotion around the world</a>, demonstrating the cathedral’s important place in history and culture as well as its enormous symbolic power. As France and other countries around the world continue to mourn the tragedy, the French government, experts, journalists and others are already mobilising to launch an ambitious restoration – funding, planning, skills, materials and technologies.</p>
<p>The debate has already started between <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/apr/17/france-announces-architecture-competition-rebuild-notre-dames-spire">traditionalists and modernists</a>. Should the cathedral be restored as exactly as it was, including the wooden roof structure? Should metal or other fire-resistant materials be used? Whatever the choices made, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299924369_Heritage_in_the_Digital_Age">digital heritage tools</a> will be critical, both in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317757322_The_Role_of_Digital_Technologies_in_the_Preservation_of_Cultural_Heritage">restoring and preserving</a> the iconic monument and in developing virtual access to past and present treasures during the restoration process and after its completion.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ebfb4a0lAnU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Drone overflight of Notre-Dame de Paris after the April 2019 fire.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cathedrals as sites for digital experimentation</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296316302569">adoption of information and communication technologies</a> (ICT) by heritage organisations serves both of their two missions, curatorship and access. Because of their size and intricate structures, cathedrals have always been the proving ground for technological innovation, from <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3050392?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">flying buttresses</a> to <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140210-duomo-florence-brunelleschi-cathedral-architecture/">immense domes</a>, and this remains true today with digital technologies. Projects such as <a href="https://www.myleszhang.org/2017/05/16/amiens/">Digital Cathedral</a>, <a href="https://home.mis.u-picardie.fr/%7Eg-caron/pub/2012_RICH_Caron.pdf">e-Cathedral</a>, and <a href="http://mappinggothic.org/building/1164">Mapping Gothic France</a> bear witness to the interest of the scientific community, public authorities and private firms, which see digital technology as a powerful tool to enhance the comprehension, preservation, restoration and transmission of heritage.</p>
<p>For example, the Computer Science Department of Columbia University, New York, has launched a major project to <a href="http://www.cs.columbia.edu/%7Eatroccol/papers/ACVA_09.pdf">digitally preserve Saint-Pierre Cathedral in Beauvais</a>, France, which has the highest vault in Europe at <a href="https://www.patrimoine-histoire.fr/Patrimoine/Beauvais/Beauvais-Saint-Pierre.htm">48 meters</a>. This monumental structure suffered partial collapses several times during its construction during the Middle Ages, and long after work stopped in 1604, it suffered bomb and fire damage during World War II. Due to its daring design and advanced age, as well as the unstable ground, past shocks, and poorly managed alterations, the structure is highly fragile. To document and model the it in 3D, the researchers made <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/%7Egd18/aqf-full-proposal.pdf">220 interior and exterior scans at multiple locations</a> to better enable the cathedral to be preserved and passed on to future generations.</p>
<p>Digital archaeological technologies have been used to reconstruct and visualise lost or inaccessible sites such as <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6743804">Pompeii</a>, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X1630428X">Lascaux Caves</a> and <a href="https://mw18.mwconf.org/paper/digital-tools-and-how-we-use-them-the-destruction-and-reconstruction-of-tangible-cultural-heritage/">Palmyra</a>. They have a memorial function for inaccessible monuments, as well as those that have been partially or completely destroyed. These technologies can reproduce them so faithfully that it is possible to feel a measure of sacredness in their virtual doubles.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jAi29udFMKw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A <em>National Geographic</em> documentary, “Laser scanning reveals cathedral’s mysteries”, featuring Andrew Tallon of Vassar College discussing how he used digital scanning to map the inside of Washington National Cathedral.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, the St. Donato Cathedral in Arezzo, Italy, demolished during the 16th century, has received a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/29188826/The_St._Donato_Cathedral_in_Arezzo._Digital_reconstruction_of_a_completely_lost_architecture">full digital reconstruction</a>. A research group within the Computer Science Department of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, has <a href="https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/4191">digitally reconstructed St. Andrews Cathedral</a>, which was ransacked during the Protestant reformation in 1559 and subsequently fell into ruin.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.vista-ar.eu/en/">Vista-AR European project</a> aims to use digital technologies to “discover the past and invisible history of a site”, including the Concergerie in Paris, where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before her execution in 1793. Located in southwest England, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=mxK-GTo-9tM">Exeter Cathedral</a> was transformed, damaged and rebuilt numerous times across its long history, including after it was bombed during World War II. Now, through the use of <a href="https://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/visit-us/vista-ar-transforming-heritage-tourism/">augmented-reality systems</a>, visitors will be able to witness scenes of past life, meet characters from long ago, and virtually access missing or inaccessible artefacts.</p>
<p>Digital technologies are also widely used to create audio guides, applications, sound and light shows, and video games. Some digital events are also based on a combination of technologies, including the summertime multimedia spectacles on the facades of the cathedrals in Amiens (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5G7Xtc2gmE">“Chroma”</a>), Reims (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMWTXPg1GkY">“Regalia”</a>) and Montreal <a href="https://www.aurabasiliquemontreal.com/en/">“Aura”</a>. Prior to the April 2019 fire, Notre-Dame de Paris naturally had its own, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx5q6VVgpOs">“Dame de Cœur”</a>.</p>
<h2>Digital technologies for restoration</h2>
<p>Given the serious damage to Notre-Dame de Paris, digital technology would have a wide range of potential applications:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Preserve the building digitally forever using ultra-high definition, panoramic, stereoscopic <a href="http://mappinggothic.org/building/1164">images</a>, as well as digital libraries and archives.</p></li>
<li><p>Explore a number of mysteries associated with the construction of religious buildings and symbols they contain using <a href="https://copa.hypotheses.org/category/imagerie-uv">spectral, infra-red and ultra-violet imagery</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CXROG62lLk">3D tomography</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>Reconstruct the cathedral using <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAi29udFMKw">digital scanning and modelling</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>During the years-long reconstruction process, allow the public to virtually visit the cathedral using applications, <a href="https://www.360cities.net/image/france-paris-notre-dame-cathedral">head-mounted diplays</a> and other virtual-reality devices.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Notre-Dame de Paris is not only the most visited tourist site in Europe, it has also been extensively studied, documented, filmed and analysed. Prior to his death in 2018, the pioneering art historian <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/notre-dame-fire-vassar-professor-andrew-tallon-who-scanned-the-cathedral-died-months-before-the-disaster">Andrew Tallon</a> scanned and documented Notre Dame and many other cathedrals. The invaluable data collected, which contains more than 1 billion data points, has been <a href="http://pages.vassar.edu/antallon/">made available in open access</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Art Graphique & Patrimoine 3D digitisation of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AGP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The firms <a href="http://www.artgp.fr/-architectural-surveys-.html?lang=en">Art Graphique & Patrimoine</a> (AGP) and Géomètres-Experts (GEA), which specialise in <a href="http://www.artgp.fr/-architectural-surveys-.html?lang=en">3D digitisation</a>, have also worked on Paris Notre-Dame Cathedral. They produced a 3D model of the roof and beams for the renovation in progress that could well have triggered the fire. This model will now be crucial for the restoration of the building.</p>
<h2>Digital technologies for access</h2>
<p>Digital technologies can provide onsite and online audiences with experiential access to heritage knowledge, artefacts and places. In the case of Notre Dame, digital technology can be used to <a href="https://books.google.fr/books?hl=fr&lr=&id=Trh6DRnwPtEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA155&dq=%22digital+technologies%22+%22disseminate+knowledge%22+%22cultural+heritage%22&ots=nvZ7PkxDvZ&sig=qefxCrBKAO3m2eTstNAx_z8fgDc">disseminate knowledge</a> about how the monument evolved through the ages, the restoration project, the historical techniques that will be involved and behind the scenes at the construction site.</p>
<p>A similar effort is underway in Basque Country, Spain, where the 800-year-old Cathedral Santa Maria de Vitoria-Gasteiz is being restored but is “open for construction”. The foundation directing the project offers <a href="https://www.catedralvitoria.eus/en/explore-the-cathedral/">two-hour guided tours</a>, from the foundations to the bell tower. The tour concludes with a sound and light show, “El portico de la Luz”, revealing how the entrance was originally painted. So far, more than 1.5 million people from all around the world have taken part.</p>
<p>For Notre-Dame de Paris, the first step in the process will be the construction of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/18/notre-dame-to-get-ephemeral-wooden-cathedral-during-rebuild">temporary wooden cathedral</a> in front, to maintain a living link with the cathedral. Within the temporary cathedral and via an online portal, visitors will be able to follow reports on the restoration’s progress, take part in the virtual community of Notre Dame, and learn about related events.</p>
<p>Indeed, to overcome the potential fall in cultural tourism, “phygital” (physical and digital) heritage technologies could be combined next to the cathedral, to create a new fascinating environment with interactive screens, digital tables, virtual reality lounges and arcades incorporating simulations and games providing strong sensations and emotions. For example, visitors could experience the video game <a href="https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/ubisoft-notre-dame-cathedral-1203191516/"><em>Assassin’s Creed Unity</em></a>, which features an <a href="https://thestarphoenix.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/ubisoft-historian-says-companys-3d-notre-dame-a-reminder-of-beauty-during-rebuild/wcm/367e3bb2-3076-4d9f-85d4-e07a61730558">intricate simulation of the cathedral</a> in all its beauty.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Re-creation of Notre Dame by Ubisoft for its game <em>Assassin’s Creed Unity</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ubisoft</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
After the tragic fire at Notre-Dame de Paris, planning for an ambitious reconstruction is already underway – and the latest digital technologies will be at the forefront.
Oihab Allal-Chérif, Full Professor, Information Systems, Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, Neoma Business School
Anne Gombault, Professeur de management, directrice du centre de recherche Industries créatives Culture, Kedge Business School
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/111895
2019-04-01T10:44:44Z
2019-04-01T10:44:44Z
7 unexpected things that libraries offer besides books
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266441/original/file-20190328-139374-1wrn8v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Libraries are offering new and innovative things that belie their historic image as silent places to read.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Local libraries are often thought of as places to check out books or engage in some silent reading. But libraries offer <a href="https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3209281.3209403">so much more</a> than just what can be found on their shelves or done in hushed tones.</p>
<p>And, in some instances, libraries have become places to make some noise.</p>
<p>From laptops and 3D laser printers, libraries today are providing the public with access to new technologies and education. In our <a href="https://www.ctg.albany.edu/projects/imls2017/">research project on public libraries in smart communities</a>, in which I serve as the principal investigator, we found that a public library serves as an <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10125/59766">anchor institution</a> for these communities. It is a role libraries can be expected to fullfil even more in the future as technology continues to evolve in new and fascinating ways.</p>
<p>Here are seven examples from throughout the country of libraries offering more than books.</p>
<h2>Robots</h2>
<p>The Westport Free Library in Westport, Connecticut – population of roughly 28,000 – has a <a href="http://westportlibrary.org/events/robot-training-classes-schedule">Robot Open Lab</a> where the public can learn how to program robots to respond to simple commands, catch and kick a small soccer ball and even dance. The library’s two robots, Vincent and Nancy, autonomous, programmable humanoid robots, arrived in September 2014. Since then, <a href="http://westportlibrary.org/about/news/robotics-library">more than 2,000 people</a> have learned how to program them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some libraries offer patrons the chance to program robots.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-China-France-Robots/c8d8d6208dd64c95a2ff1ee1e4c65a34/24/0">AP photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wi-Fi for your home</h2>
<p>For those who may lack the financial resources to buy Wi-Fi, libraries such as the Chicago Public Library offer <a href="https://www.chipublib.org/news/borrow-a-wifi-hotspot-from-chicago-public-library/">Wi-Fi hotspot lending programs</a> that allow patrons to access the internet from home. Some have collections of laptops, e-readers and MP3 players available for check out.</p>
<h2>Creation tools</h2>
<p>Along similar technical lines, public libraries offer free access to <a href="https://www.makerspaces.com/what-is-a-makerspace/">maker spaces</a>, which are laboratories filled with advanced technical equipment like 3D printers and laser cutters. </p>
<p>For instance, the <a href="https://chattlibrary.org/4th-floor/">4th Floor</a> in the Chattanooga Public Library in Tennessee is a 12,000-square-foot public laboratory and educational facility with a focus on information, design, technology and the applied arts. The library also has classes to teach citizens how to use the equipment. </p>
<p>The goal isn’t for every citizen to start their own new tech company, but to expose people to the technology as a matter of education and empowerment.</p>
<h2>Recording studios</h2>
<p>Chattanooga also has a <a href="https://chattlibrary.org/thestudio/">fully functional music studio</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of a band record music at a Chattanooga public library.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With a valid library card, a patron can reserve a three-hour session in the studio – which is filled with state-of-the-art recording studio equipment – to work on projects and learn the art of recording. A studio instructor is available to help inspire, educate and spark creativity.</p>
<p>For those who want to build and fix things, Chattanooga also has an extensive hand- and power-tool collection filled with hammers, wrench sets, drills and saws among many other tools. Cardholders who are 18 or older can check out <a href="https://chattlibrary.org/2018/11/07/tool-library/">up to three tools at a time</a> for one week. </p>
<h2>Open data</h2>
<p>Some libraries serve as places to learn more about how to take advantage of open data – particularly since the January passage of the <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/15/transparency-seeking-open-government-data-act-signed-into-law/">OPEN Government Act</a>. The new law requires federal agencies to make the data they have on anything – from health to crime – available to the public by publishing it in a machine-readable format, such as an Excel file, that allows for use and reuse. The benefits of accessing these data include informed debate, better decision-making and the development of innovative new services.</p>
<p>The Chapel Hill Public Library in North Carolina offers <a href="https://www.chapelhillopendata.org/page/home1/">Chapel Hill Open Data</a> in partnership with the town. The library also organizes open data events for academics, business entrepreneurs, civic hackers or anyone who’s interested in transparency and open data use.</p>
<h2>Unique collections</h2>
<p>Even with all of this technology, libraries are also places where the public can learn about and appreciate the unique and artistic sides of life.</p>
<p>The art gallery at the Hillsboro Public Library in Oregon opened in 2013 to serve as a community cultural space. Since then, the library <a href="http://starj.com/direct/woman_s_passion_for_painting_flows_again+5021flows+576f6d616e27732070617373696f6e20666f72207061696e74696e6720666c6f777320616761696e">displays local art</a> for two-month exhibitions between November and August.</p>
<p>Since its first growing season in 2014, the <a href="http://www.duluthlibrary.org/adults/duluth-seed-library/">Duluth Public Library’s Seed Library</a> in Minnesota has offered the community varieties of tomato, pepper, bean and pea seeds. In addition to the seeds themselves, the library has education and resources about growing and saving seeds and organic gardening. Typically, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-sharing-economy-for-plants-seed-libraries-are-sprouting-up-106432">seed library</a> patrons return some seeds from their harvest to make the library self-sustaining.</p>
<p>Virginia’s Arlington Public Library has an <a href="https://library.arlingtonva.us/borrow/american-girl/">American Girl doll collection</a> available for people to borrow along with related books.</p>
<h2>Health care</h2>
<p>No library service will be of much use if you’re not in good health. </p>
<p>Recognizing this, the <a href="https://www.freelibrary.org/">Free Library of Philadelphia</a>, one of the largest public library systems in the world, offers myriad health-related options for its patrons. For instance, the library loans health equipment such as <a href="https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/2088121">blood pressure monitors</a>. It also has <a href="https://libwww.freelibrary.org/blog/post/3598">resources to help people</a> find health care, sign up for federal benefits and get free or low-cost food.</p>
<p>Beyond traditional health care, the Free Library of Philadelphia also has a <a href="https://libwww.freelibrary.org/programs/culinary/">Culinary Literacy Center</a> that offers a wide range of programs for eaters of all interests and tastes. At the Parkway Central Library branch, nurses and social workers are on-site every weekday to talk about mental and physical health, answer questions, check your blood pressure and help schedule an appointment with doctors.</p>
<p>But this is not the only library focusing on health. The <a href="http://miamipl.okpls.org/">Miami Library</a> in Oklahoma has made health literacy a central part of its operations, offering everything from diabetes prevention to yoga classes, as well as healthy cooking demonstrations and even a community garden.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111895/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mila Gascó-Hernández receives funding from The Institute of Museums and Library Services. This article is the result of the IMLS-funded project " Enabling Smart, Inclusive, and Connected Communities: The Role of Public Libraries", where she serves as the PI.</span></em></p>
With advancements in technology, libraries are offering much more than something to read. A library researcher offers a sampling of some unexpected items that library patrons can check out these days.
Mila Gascó-Hernández, Research Associate Professor and Associate Research Director for the Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/110906
2019-02-01T07:47:55Z
2019-02-01T07:47:55Z
New research proves the long-held theory that lasers can create fractals
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256809/original/file-20190201-112389-xqidci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A cross section of a fractal pattern, created by a laser in the Wits Structured Light Laboratory. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wits University</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We all appreciate the beauty of Nature, whether it be cloud patterns, mountain ranges or coastlines. These structures have complex shapes that at first appearance are hard to quantify: how could we describe them in a “scientific manner”? </p>
<p>Some decades ago the idea arose that very complex structures could be produced by very simple iterative rules: that is, a simple rule repeated over and over may explain much of Nature’s complexity, revealing its hidden symmetries in the process. </p>
<p>Computers are ideal for simulating such tasks – repetition is their forte. Using computers, mathematicians began to produce beautiful abstract creations. Today we know these as <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/mathematics/fractals-in-nature">fractals</a>.</p>
<p>Nature uses this iterative process – a simple starting shape and a simple repeating rule – to create many of the complex structures we see around us, <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/mathematics/fractals-in-nature">from ferns to sea shells</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256810/original/file-20190201-110834-f42yg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256810/original/file-20190201-110834-f42yg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256810/original/file-20190201-110834-f42yg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256810/original/file-20190201-110834-f42yg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256810/original/file-20190201-110834-f42yg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256810/original/file-20190201-110834-f42yg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256810/original/file-20190201-110834-f42yg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A zoomed in version of a famous computer-generated fractal, the Mandelbrot Set.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Forbes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, nature can produce fractals; computers can, too. Could light be a fractal? The answer was known to be yes. If light was passed through a fractal-like object then it too became fractal. Then, about two decades ago, scientists <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/45960">predicted</a> that simple lasers may also be able to produce fractals.</p>
<p>Now that prediction has been fulfilled. I lead <a href="http://www.structuredlight.org">a group</a> at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa that works on structured light, including lasers. Working with colleagues at the country’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and in Scotland, we have made the first direct observation of fractal light from lasers. </p>
<p>This is exciting for two reasons. First, there’s a certain satisfaction in unravelling mysteries in science, advancing our knowledge. Second, such discoveries often lead to new technologies. Our group’s research aim is to create custom lasers with the ability to output any desired pattern. Doing so will see lasers find even more applications than they do today. Fractals have already been used in digital processing, imaging and <a href="https://www.medicographia.com/2013/01/fractals-and-their-contribution-to-biology-and-medicine/">even medicine</a>. So we are excited about the possibility to offer a laser to deliver such exotically structured light. </p>
<h2>Making laser fractals</h2>
<p>A laser can be considered as nothing more than a box made of two mirrors so that light bounces back and forth between the two mirrors, leaking a little out from one end – the laser light. The iterative rule here is simple: the light goes back and forth between the mirrors over and over again. </p>
<p>But mirrors are highly polished surfaces with no evident structure, suggesting a rather bland output. Indeed, this is what we mostly see: blobs of light from our laser pointers, for example. So it was somewhat perplexing to think that this “box” could produce a complex light field that is fractal.</p>
<p>We looked carefully at the prediction from 20 years ago and realised that to see the fractal you would have to actually look inside the box. That’s because paradoxically, the light that comes out of the box would not be fractal. The trick was to design the optical system to see inside the laser – and in particular to see a very specific place, the common imaging plane. </p>
<p>The mirrors have such a plane because they are curved, like parabolic satellite dishes, and as with those dishes which focus to the detector, so the curved mirrors focus to a plane. Since the two mirrors face each other it is possible to adjust their separation so that where they focus coincides: the common imaging plane.</p>
<p>To understand why, imagine that the light begins at this plane and travels from left to right, bounces off the mirror, goes all the way back to the other mirror, bounces off, and then returns to the starting plane. At the imaging plane the returning light is a magnified version of the initial light. This keeps happening, and the light becomes either smaller or bigger after each return trip.</p>
<p>This repetition results in patterns within patterns within patterns: fractal light from lasers.</p>
<p>One of the tests for a fractal structure is to zoom in: if you see complexity and repeating images at various magnifications you have a fractal structure. It is as if the pattern keeps repeating no matter how far in you go. </p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>All the images we have seen so far are 2D: they are images on a screen rather than 3D objects that would look like a hologram. </p>
<p>This means that while the mystery of 2D fractals in lasers is now resolved, there is a new prediction to test. In our simulations of the laser we found that there might be fractal structure along the axis of the box, in the direction that the light is travelling in. This would imply that 3D fractals are possible in lasers. </p>
<p>To verify this would require a far more precise experiment, the subject of ongoing research in our group. </p>
<p>This is the nature of science: answering old questions inevitably results in new, more complex questions to be answered. So, although one chapter is closed, another remains completely unwritten.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110906/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Forbes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Nature can produce fractals, computers can, too. Could light be a fractal? The answer is yes.
Andrew Forbes, Professor, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/103545
2018-09-20T09:34:33Z
2018-09-20T09:34:33Z
‘Penis bones’ – an evolutionary puzzle explained using innovative 3D scanning
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237119/original/file-20180919-158237-1kk1e7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 3D model of the skeleton of a European polecat. Penis bone (baculum) is highlighted in pink. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charlotte A. Brassey</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For ferrets, sex is a prolonged affair. In total, the act of mating might last up to three hours. Fortunately for the males of the species, they are packing a secret weapon to help them through this daunting task. Some modern mammals (including <a href="https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/56/4/644/2198249">ferrets, mice, dogs and even apes</a>) have a bone inside their penis, called <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-penis-bones-help-primates-win-the-mating-game-and-why-humans-might-have-lost-theirs-70312">the baculum</a>. </p>
<p>The bones have evolved different shapes and sizes, from the ice-cream scoop form of the honey badger to the long thin osseous bone of a black bear. It has always been a bit of mystery as to why some species of male mammals evolved bones in their penises. Humans are actually unusual in this respect, as our species has lost the mineralised bone in place of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2164/jandrol.04145">a small ligament</a> in the tip of the penis. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237281/original/file-20180920-129859-uijwub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237281/original/file-20180920-129859-uijwub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237281/original/file-20180920-129859-uijwub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237281/original/file-20180920-129859-uijwub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237281/original/file-20180920-129859-uijwub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237281/original/file-20180920-129859-uijwub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237281/original/file-20180920-129859-uijwub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ferrets are one of the mammals which have a baculum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/ferret-outdoor-portrait-field-flowers-773851156?src=5S3Enyz0e2WtzghVGyswWg-1-7">Everydoghasastory/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In animals possessing a baculum, males with wider penis bones have been shown to <a href="https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7007-11-66">father a larger number of offspring</a>. Yet exactly how the penis bone impacts on male fertility has remained a puzzle. </p>
<h2>Protecting the urethra</h2>
<p>However, <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/285/1887/20181473">our new research</a> – which used innovative 3D scanning and engineering-inspired computer simulations – has revealed that in carnivores (the group including cats, bears, dogs and weasels), the baculum may help males breed for extended periods of time. The “prolonged intromission” hypothesis suggests that the penis bone has evolved to protect the urethra (the tube responsible for delivering sperm) when sex becomes a lengthy endeavour. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237116/original/file-20180919-158234-16e98kn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237116/original/file-20180919-158234-16e98kn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237116/original/file-20180919-158234-16e98kn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237116/original/file-20180919-158234-16e98kn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237116/original/file-20180919-158234-16e98kn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237116/original/file-20180919-158234-16e98kn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237116/original/file-20180919-158234-16e98kn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A museum drawer containing sea otter bacula at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charlotte A Brassey</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other studies have found mixed evidence in support of this idea, some <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1844/20161736">in favour</a> and some <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2907.2002.00112.x">against</a>. In part, this might be due to important features of the baculum previously being ignored. Penis bones are notable for being extremely diverse in shape, with species being distinguished by possessing bizarre tips, ridges and grooves. Yet in the past, biologists have only included the most basic metrics (bone length and diameter) into their models of baculum function. </p>
<h2>Virtually ‘crash-testing’ the penis bone</h2>
<p>To address this oversight, we used a digital modelling technique more familiar to engineers and physicists. In “finite element analysis” (FEA), a 3D computer model is virtually “crash-tested” in order to calculate how strong the object is. The method is more commonly applied to structures such as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359836814003588">bridges</a> or <a href="https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/7258">race cars</a>, as a way of predicting their performance without physically damaging the object. </p>
<p>The major benefit of FEA is that the whole 3D shape of the baculum can be incorporated into our estimates of bone strength. Our results suggest that animals breeding for very long durations typically have penis bones that are much stronger than their fast-mating relatives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237133/original/file-20180919-158228-iannoa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237133/original/file-20180919-158228-iannoa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237133/original/file-20180919-158228-iannoa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237133/original/file-20180919-158228-iannoa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237133/original/file-20180919-158228-iannoa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237133/original/file-20180919-158228-iannoa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237133/original/file-20180919-158228-iannoa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">3D finite element models of carnivore penis bones - from top to bottom: tiger, brown bear, wolf, polecat. Not to scale. Hot colours indicate regions bone areas that are highly stressed. Cool colours indicate bones that are less stressed (more robust).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charlotte A. Brassey</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Where are all the females?</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237124/original/file-20180919-158213-13wfc2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237124/original/file-20180919-158213-13wfc2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237124/original/file-20180919-158213-13wfc2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237124/original/file-20180919-158213-13wfc2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237124/original/file-20180919-158213-13wfc2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237124/original/file-20180919-158213-13wfc2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237124/original/file-20180919-158213-13wfc2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">X-ray image of live mating ferrets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charlotte A. Brassey</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Previous research, including our own study, has tended to focus heavily on male anatomy, to the exclusion of females. In mammals, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001851">less than a quarter</a> of all studies investigating the evolution of genitals have included both sexes. This bias may partly stem from practical issues – male genitals are often made up of rigid hard parts sitting outside the body, making them easier for scientists to study. But it may also reflect a historic misconception of the female reproductive system as being a “passive” vessel, compared to more “active” male structures. </p>
<p>This means we have potentially overlooked important interactions between the sexes. Thankfully, with the application of new X-ray imaging techniques and computer modelling, our awareness of female genital anatomy is beginning to catch up. We are now extending our study to also include the size and shape of the vaginal tract and to capture the live motion of the genitals during mating, as a more holistic approach to studying animal reproduction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103545/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlotte Brassey receives funding via a BBSRC Future Leader Fellowship (BB/N010957/1)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Gardiner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Our study used innovative 3D scanning and engineering-inspired computer simulations to understand the evolution of the penis bone in some mammals.
Charlotte Brassey, Research Fellow in Animal Biology, Manchester Metropolitan University
James Gardiner, Research Associate in Musculoskeletal Biology, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/96175
2018-05-21T10:46:31Z
2018-05-21T10:46:31Z
What you see in a 3D scan of yourself could be upsetting
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218646/original/file-20180511-34009-1g2p5qi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=438%2C0%2C730%2C653&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What does a machine see when it looks at you?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jessica Ridgway</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Amazon is reportedly looking for people who are willing to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-studies-body-sizes-to-get-that-perfect-clothing-fit-1525355115">have their bodies scanned in 3D</a> in order to track and measure subtle changes in their sizes and shapes. It’s part of the company’s <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/03/amazon-has-acquired-3d-body-model-startup-body-labs-for-50m-70m/">broader push</a> to sell more clothes by more accurately predicting how garments will fit different body shapes.</p>
<p>But Amazon may not be considering the psychological effects 3D body scans can have on consumers. In April 2018, I published a study that found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0887302X17749924">when a person views their body in 3D</a>, it makes them feel sadder and worse about their appearance. Increasingly sophisticated 3D scanning technologies might seem to offer retailers a competitive edge, but a customer who has just been scanned may feel bad about how they look and not be up for buying anything at all.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218615/original/file-20180511-34006-vof8y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218615/original/file-20180511-34006-vof8y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218615/original/file-20180511-34006-vof8y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1195&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218615/original/file-20180511-34006-vof8y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1195&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218615/original/file-20180511-34006-vof8y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1195&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218615/original/file-20180511-34006-vof8y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218615/original/file-20180511-34006-vof8y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218615/original/file-20180511-34006-vof8y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 3D scan of a person’s body, with lines marking where tailors’ measurements would be taken for various garments.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jessica Ridgway</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Getting a 3D view</h2>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aTJ0YzwAAAAJ&hl=en">Previous research</a> I conducted on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0887302X16678335">body shape perception</a> found that people believed that a 3D body scan was an accurate depiction of their real body. That belief inspired me to further explore people’s feelings about seeing their bodies in 3D. Seeing your body in 3D is, at the moment, rare and unusual: Even mirrors and photos show only two-dimensional views. If retail stores are going to let more people see their own bodies in 3D, I reasoned, there may be wider effects on society.</p>
<p>To understand what happens when someone sees him or herself in 3D, I conducted a study of students at Florida State University, where I work. A total of 101 men and women came to my <a href="http://jimmoranschool.fsu.edu/about/faculty-staff/faculty-jessica-ridgway-clayton/">body scanning research laboratory</a>, where they participated in a survey, were body scanned and then took the same survey again. </p>
<p>The survey contained questions to measure <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10640260290081678">body satisfaction</a>, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/1988-28581-001">mood</a> and <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/1077727X94232002">appearance management behaviors</a>. For example, people were asked how they were currently feeling about their overall appearance and body shape and size; the degree to which they were at that moment feeling happy, sad, grouchy and other emotions; and how likely they were to engage in certain activities, like dieting and exercise. </p>
<p>Additionally, both before and after the scan, I gave participants a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20526">group of line drawings of bodies</a> and asked them to select the figure that most closely represents their actual self. They then viewed the collection of figures again and were asked to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-17-figural-drawings-comprising-the-original-BIAS-BD-figural-drawing-scale-Gardner_fig1_221690006">select the figure</a> which most closely represents the ideal way they would like to look.</p>
<h2>Changing feelings about their bodies</h2>
<p>The difference between their indication of actual and ideal served as a measure of how differently each of them perceived who they actually were from who they wanted to be. People who chose very different real and ideal body shapes are more likely to <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/1987-34444-001.html">feel sad and depressed</a>.</p>
<p>I compared participants’ self-perceptions before and after they viewed their 3D body scans. After seeing their body scan, the participants – both men and women – perceived their actual selves to be almost one figure larger than what their perception had been before seeing the scan. For men and women, their ideal stayed about the same, or was in fact slightly smaller than their original choice.</p>
<p>As a result of this changed perception, participants reported feeling less satisfied with their bodies and more negative in general. These bad feelings were strong enough to increase their stated willingness to change their behaviors, including saying they were more likely to diet and exercise. Future studies could determine whether people actually followed through on those feelings.</p>
<h2>A caution for retailers</h2>
<p>If Amazon and other retailers plan to use body scanning as part of their customers’ experience, they should know how and why people respond negatively – both about themselves and in general – to seeing a 3D scan of their bodies. Those responses, like all emotional changes, are likely to affect their <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/pages/emotions_and_consumer_behavior">shopping behaviors</a>. </p>
<p>Retailers might be able to use 3D scans to provide better-fitting clothes to their customers, but buyers might choose to go home and diet and exercise first. Days, weeks or months later when they return to shop, ideally in a better mood and feeling better about their bodies, will they go to a place that showed them everything that was wrong? Or will they seek out a more affirming environment? These questions and others like them will be examined in my future research. But for now, it’s hard to say whether 3D body scanning will boost forward-thinking retailers, or if it will create a new group of dissatisfied consumers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96175/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Ridgway Clayton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
When people see their bodies in 3D, they feel worse about themselves and more negative in general. That might not put shoppers in a buying mood even for clothes that fit better.
Jessica Ridgway Clayton, Assistant Professor of Retail Entrepreneurship, Florida State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91725
2018-02-28T11:50:37Z
2018-02-28T11:50:37Z
Virtual archaeology: how we achieved the first long-distance reconstruction of a cultural artefact
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207676/original/file-20180223-108113-emp0m6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Collins</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The epic of Atrahasis is one of the most significant pieces of ancient Babylonian literature. It describes a creation myth, a great flood and the building of an ark, that significantly pre-dates a similar account in the Bible. The epic has survived millennia on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OC_kpFyfT0">clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform script</a>. But the third tablet of one of the most <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1338127&partId=1&searchText=Atrahasis&images=true&page=1">complete surviving copies</a> is broken. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Ark_Before_Noah.html?id=W7mdoAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">difficulties associated with its reconstruction</a> are summarised by Irving Finkel, cuneiform curator at the <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/">The British Museum</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The crucial episode about the Ark and the Flood occurs in Ipiq-Aya’s Tablet III. This tablet is now in two pieces. The larger, known as C₁, might just possibly join [with] C₂ if they could ever be manoeuvred into the same room, but the former is in the British Museum and the latter in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva. One day I will try out the join …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This potential join has been hypothesised for over 50 years, but never physically confirmed. Now, using 3D computational geometry, there is no longer a need to manoeuvre the physical fragments into the same room. Instead, we built 3D virtual models of the fragments and demonstrated that they <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320471011_Computational_Aspects_of_Model_Acquisition_and_Join_Geometry_for_the_Virtual_Reconstruction_of_the_Atrahasis_Cuneiform_Tablet">join precisely</a>. This is the first time that a long-distance virtual reconstruction of a cuneiform text has been achieved.</p>
<h2>Cuneiform and Atrahasis</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206302/original/file-20180213-174959-wpry8e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A cuneiform tablet fragment from the ancient city of Ur written in Sumerian c.2000BC.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cuneiform script is one of mankind’s earliest systems of writing. It was in use for some 3,000 years in and around Mesopotamia (the region of modern day Iraq and Syria). The script was written on clay “tablets” by making wedge-shaped impressions with a reed stylus. </p>
<p>Many thousands of inscribed tablets have been excavated in the last 200 years, but they are, typically, fragmented. Joining pieces are now distributed within and between museum collections worldwide. This enormously complex worldwide 3D jigsaw puzzle constitutes an unknown number of complete and incomplete tablets.</p>
<p>The epic of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atra-Hasis">Atrahasis</a> has particular cultural significance in that a large part of the narrative concerns how the Babylonian gods, displeased with mankind, elected to send a great flood to cleanse the world. One of the gods, Ea, took pity on mankind and gave Atrahasis instructions to build an ark to preserve humans and animals alike. A modified version of the story is included in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444">epic of Gilgamesh</a> in which the character of Atrahasis is replaced by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utnapishtim">Utnapishtim</a>. The protagonist is Noah in the later account in the Old Testament.</p>
<p>The tablet that we were working with belongs to one of the most famous and complete copies of the epic of Atrahasis, known as the “Old Babylonian” copy. It was written by the scribe Ipiq-Aya in the southern Mesopotamian city of Sippar around 1635BC. Although a join between the fragments of the third and final tablet in the epic has been long suspected, it has never been verified because one of the fragments is housed in London; the other is in Geneva.</p>
<h2>Virtual reconstruction</h2>
<p>Recent advances in 3D computational geometry have made it possible to create accurate models of physical objects from sets of photographs. This makes <a href="http://virtualcuneiform.org">virtual reconstruction</a> a possibility, regardless of the physical separation of fragments.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206296/original/file-20180213-118385-6mk25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Close up of the 3D visualisation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Collins</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once in virtual form, potential joins can be discovered by mapping the elevation of the “terrain” of each fragment and then matching the peaks and valleys on one with their opposing features on the other. A perfect geometrical match can be confirmed if an orientation can be found where the distance between the fragments is zero across the whole of the joining surface. This technique has already been successfully applied to the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269101067_Computer-Assisted_Reconstruction_of_Virtual_Fragmented_Cuneiform_Tablets">automated joining</a> of fragments from the ancient city of Uruk, for example.</p>
<p>However, virtual joins had never been reported for fragments held in different collections. But, of course, physical separation of fragments is no barrier to virtual reconstruction. So during the summer of 2017, we took about 150 photographs of each fragment, C₁ and C₂, to compute detailed 3D models.</p>
<p>It is not obvious, when manually aligning these virtual fragments, that they will fit well together. A close-fitting join only became apparent when our automated virtual reconstruction algorithm was applied. The result was a near-perfect match between the inner surfaces of the two fragments.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206300/original/file-20180213-44651-11cpeyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A depth-map showing the distance between the surfaces of the joined fragments.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A depth-map visualisation of the distance between the two matching surfaces shows a significant joining surface area. At the edges of the tablet, the quality of the join deteriorates due to erosion, as is clearly apparent on the original physical artefacts.</p>
<p>A possible join between the Atrahasis fragments in London and Geneva has been speculated for over 50 years. We can now declare, with certainty, that the match is confirmed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors thank the Trustees of the British Museum for permission to access and scan cuneiform tablet fragments including BM 78942+78971+80385 and Dr Jonathan Taylor whose assistance made this work possible. The authors would also like to thank Mrs Béatrice Blandin, Geneva, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, for the permission to scan the fragment MAH 16064.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erlend Gehlken, Eugene Ch’ng, and Tim Collins do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The possible join between the fragments of an ancient epic written in cuneiform in London and Geneva has been speculated for over 50 years.
Sandra Woolley, Senior Lecturer, Software and Systems Engineering Research, Keele University
Erlend Gehlken, Privatdozent (Associate Professor), Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Eugene Ch’ng, Professor of Cultural Computing, Director NVIDIA Joint-Lab on Mixed Reality, University of Nottingham
Tim Collins, Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering, Manchester Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/92503
2018-02-28T01:16:58Z
2018-02-28T01:16:58Z
How art merges with maths to explore continuity, change and exotic states
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208188/original/file-20180227-36693-udldxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3696%2C2345&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The adaptable form of pleated and folded textiles provides a real world view of the mathematical field of topology. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://art.uts.edu.au/index.php/exhibitions/soft-topologies/">Kate Scardifield</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine you could turn a hollow sphere completely inside out - without making a hole, without cutting the material, without making any creases. </p>
<p>If you could ever do such a thing, it would rely on a field of mathematics called topology. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nobel-prize-for-physics-goes-to-topology-and-mathematicians-applaud-66532">The Nobel Prize for Physics goes to topology – and mathematicians applaud</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Kate Scardifileld’s current exhibition <a href="http://art.uts.edu.au/index.php/exhibitions/soft-topologies/">Soft Topologies</a> at the UTS Gallery is an example of an artist using the metaphor of topology to make artwork and describe her practice. Scardifield’s primary media are textiles, though the exhibition is also a series of “adaptable sculptures” that will be transformed by the artist and a select, multidisciplinary team.</p>
<p>The exhibition is a choreography of Scardifield’s attractively coloured textiles, which spray, flutter, fan, drape, hang and crumple through the space like escaped gestures. These forms are only one version of the installations, limited by the static state convenient for gallery viewing. </p>
<p>The far wall of the exhibition is covered by a grid of yellow tape against bright blue. It’s a comparatively rigid expression of space that offsets the dynamism and intricacy of the textiles scattered about the room. </p>
<h2>What is topology?</h2>
<p>The origins of topology are in the field of geometry, where it is used to understand “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nobel-prize-for-physics-goes-to-topology-and-mathematicians-applaud-66532">geometric objects that don’t change when bent or stretched</a>.” </p>
<p>Combined with algebraic geometry, abstract algebra, differential equations and probabilities, topology is now used in many branches of physics to understand “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nobel-prize-for-physics-goes-to-topology-and-mathematicians-applaud-66532">exotic states of matter</a>” - that is, states of matter that are not solid, liquid or gas and that have <a href="https://www.school-for-champions.com/science/matter_states_exotic.htm#.WpTm1BNuY6g">very unusual physical characteristics</a>. </p>
<p>But topology has recently made the transition from an exclusively mathematical field of study to something that is more widely used in the analysis and creation of cultural and social phenomena. Some scholars even claim that culture as a whole is “<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0263276412454552">becoming topological</a>.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R_w4HYXuo9M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How to turn a sphere inside out, using topological mathematics.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scardifield’s exhibition is an example of the way practitioners from different disciplines productively use ideas that originate in vastly different fields of study. </p>
<p>Metaphors forged in one discipline happily circulate through others. “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_theory">The cell</a>”, for instance, is an architectural term that became common and influential in biological science, the study of social phenomena (terrorist cells) and technology (cell phone). “Immunity” is a term that originally had <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ifAczQoHyZ0C&pg=PA249&lpg=PA249&dq=1881+immune+metaphor+law&source=bl&ots=AjoxjJOi1X&sig=6yOxSYMeeY22-Fv6Xw5rtKnN_kc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjMyO7-q8fZAhVEvrwKHbXOC9oQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=1881%20immune%20metaphor%20law&f=false">legal applications</a> meaning “exception from liability”, which is now more commonly associated with medicine. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-artists-get-involved-in-research-science-benefits-82147">When artists get involved in research, science benefits</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Explaining relationships</h2>
<p>Topology enables a different understanding of the relationships between things. </p>
<p>Philosopher <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/390243">Ian Hacking</a> suggests that the topological metaphor of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifold">manifold</a> is an improvement on the optical metaphor of a spectrum for capturing our present awareness of autism. A spectrum “misleadingly suggests a single dimension from severe to high-functioning” whereas manifolds, like kinds of autism, “come in any number of dimensions”.</p>
<p>Topological metaphors are also useful for thinking differently about other relations that are conventionally conceived as spectra: left and right political, male and female gender. </p>
<p>For example, thinking topologically enables the understanding that Greens supporters and Nationals, who are usually imagined to be at opposed ends of the political spectrum, might be aligned on certain issues, such as those to do with the fights against coal mines on farm land. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207994/original/file-20180227-36674-17twe3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207994/original/file-20180227-36674-17twe3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207994/original/file-20180227-36674-17twe3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207994/original/file-20180227-36674-17twe3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207994/original/file-20180227-36674-17twe3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207994/original/file-20180227-36674-17twe3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207994/original/file-20180227-36674-17twe3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adaptable sculpture in one variation. Accordion pleated spinnaker cloth, sail battens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robin Hearfield</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Topology in textiles</h2>
<p>Scardifield’s practice involves folding and distorting cloth so that it takes on a surprising variety of forms. She focuses on the relationship between change and continuity of form through operations of weaving, folding, draping, pleating and layering. These are analogous to the abstract manipulations and speculations that inform the mathematical field of topology. </p>
<p>A flat piece of cloth is a classic, simple two dimensional space. Three dimensional space of a more complicated nature is created when Scardifield deliberately folds cloth in pleats. </p>
<p>Folds of a more random variety are created in the exhibition by allowing the cloth to describe the forms of other objects (draping) or the forces of gravity and tension (hanging). The new forms created in these processes are at once distinct from and yet continuous with the original pieces of cloth.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207989/original/file-20180227-36706-qzfdfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207989/original/file-20180227-36706-qzfdfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207989/original/file-20180227-36706-qzfdfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207989/original/file-20180227-36706-qzfdfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207989/original/file-20180227-36706-qzfdfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207989/original/file-20180227-36706-qzfdfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207989/original/file-20180227-36706-qzfdfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hand pleated and heat-set polyester organza, cotton thread, black tourmaline. 185x120cm (full expansion). Adaptable form, Dimensions variable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kate Scardifield and ALASKA Projects</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Author and academic <a href="http://www.stevenconnor.com/topologies/">Steven Connor suggests</a> that “the labile, intermediary form of the textile” provides a better material metaphor for understanding “the contemporary world of communication and information” than previous alternatives of solidity or fluidity. </p>
<p>Textiles are at once pliable and cohesive, and in this sense invite the imagining of forms that dance with subtle fluctuations over time. This is expressed in the following video of Scardifield making a chevron mould.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BfraGw-Hr-t/?taken-by=katescardifield","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>The expression of space and form in terms of continuity and change is central to the individual objects in Soft Topologies and the overall design of the exhibition. Scardifield has deliberately designed the exhibition as a dynamic space, involving multiple participants from different disciplines who rearrange her works for the duration of the show and express her textiles through other media, such as video and photography. </p>
<p>The traces of her work in different media are like the traces left by the folds Scardifield makes in cloth and paper to create new forms. </p>
<p>Scardifield doesn’t use topological mathematics in her exhibition. However, the show is a great example of topology can invite different possibilities for imagining and analysis. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Soft Topologies is showing 27 February—20 April 2018 at UTS Gallery, Sydney</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Lee works for the University of Technology Sydney and at times receives funding and support for his research and writing.</span></em></p>
Art can help us explore and understand some of the more abstract ideas in maths - such a topology.
Tom Lee, Lecturer, Faculty of Design and Architecture Building, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91936
2018-02-19T13:40:58Z
2018-02-19T13:40:58Z
Were Team GB’s skeleton suits responsible for fantastic three medal haul?
<p>Team GB skeleton rider Lizzie Yarnold won a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/42981272">stunning Winter Olympic gold</a> on February 17, backed up by bronzes for Laura Deas and Dom Parsons. Thanks to drag-resistant ridges, 3D laser scanning and topnotch material, Team GB’s skeleton suits are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/12/gb-skeleton-pyeongchang-skin-suits-british-cycling">said to</a> have provided up to a one-second advantage per run over the rest of the field and have been a hot topic of <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/winter-olympics-2018/2018/02/15/2018-winter-olympics-british-skeleton-suits-create-controversy/339893002/">controversy</a>. </p>
<p>What makes these revolutionary suits so speedy – and just how important were these technological innovations in Team GB’s riders’ success? The Conversation put these questions to Nick Martin, senior lecturer in Aerodynamics at Northumbria University.</p>
<p><strong>How do the suits give the riders their extra speed?</strong></p>
<p>The aerodynamics of a skeleton bobsled and rider are complex, and our knowledge of fluid mechanics is far from complete. This creates opportunities for research and development programmes that push the frontiers of our aerodynamic understanding to produce technological innovations that give riders an all-important edge.</p>
<p>Drag is the aerodynamic force that opposes an object’s motion through air and slows it down. Only about 10% of the drag force acting on skeleton riders comes from the bobsled, meaning that the greatest potential for improving the time it takes to traverse the 1,376.38 meter track in Pyeongchang is to optimising the aerodynamics of the athletes themselves.</p>
<p>The drag acting on the riders comes from two sources. Air moving close to the athletes’ bodies moves slower than air further away, causing friction along the athletes’ skin suits. In addition, as athletes move down the track, air directly in front of them becomes more compressed and air behind them becomes less dense. This pressure difference acts to both “push” against the athletes from the front and “pull” them back at the same time, slowing them down.</p>
<p>Pressure drag accounts for more than 90% of the overall drag on both the rider and bobsled. The amount of pressure drag is influenced by the shape of the athlete, so aerodynamics experts can most effectively attempt to make performance gains by refining the athletes’ helmets and suits.</p>
<p>Skeleton suits are made out of an elastic material called polyurethane. All teams use this material, but the addition of drag-resistant ridges and the use of 3D scanning allows the suit designers to make subtle changes to the athletes’ shape that seems to set apart Team GB’s suits. This fine tuning is comparable to the careful design engineering of Formula One cars and aeroplanes to perfect their aerodynamic behaviour.</p>
<p>The drag-resistant ridges on Team GB’s suits introduce turbulence into the thin layer of air surrounding the athlete, known as the boundary layer. A turbulent boundary layer actually causes more skin friction, but is less likely to separate when it encounters a seam in the skin suit, a folded ridge of material, or a curved surface. Separation creates pockets of low-pressure, slow-moving air, too much of which can cause large increases in pressure drag. The ridges minimise pressure drag, surmounting the increased skin friction to provide the riders with that extra bit of oomph.</p>
<p>Any loose “flapping” material from the riders’ skin suits also causes air separation. By 3D laser scanning athletes, the suit manufacturers can create bespoke, close-fitting suits for each rider, reducing the amount of loose material. 3D scans can also be used in computer simulations to model how air flows over the rider and bobsled in order to analyse where any improvements can be made.</p>
<p><strong>How much of a speed advantage do you think the suits provided?</strong></p>
<p>A very liberal estimate of a 5% reduction in pressure drag would result in an approximate time saving of less than half a second. Most of the drag savings can be made just by an athlete having a sensible, close-fitting skin suit, which most of the athletes already have, further reducing the benefits of the ridges and 3D scanning.</p>
<p>So, the claims of a one-second advantage are exaggerated. But from my experience working in Formula One, it is marginal gains of fractions of a percent that can make the difference to the top athletes. Let’s not forget that Laura Deas only took her bronze by <a href="https://www.olympic.org/pyeongchang-2018/results/resOWG2018/pdf/OWG2018/SKN/OWG2018_SKN_C73B2_SKNWSINGLES-----------------------.pdf">a margin</a> of 0.02 seconds.</p>
<p><strong>Is this fair and if so, why isn’t everyone using them?</strong></p>
<p>The suits were checked by the sport’s governing body and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/14/rival-athletes-legality-team-gb-skin-suit-winter-olympics">ruled to be legal</a>. Technology plays an important part in sports science. If it is correctly regulated to allow all competitors to profit from it, then this is a good thing. </p>
<p>The research that goes into drag reduction techniques could well be transferable to other engineering disciplines, which could have a benefit to the wider society. </p>
<p>I think that this is just an opportunity missed by other teams. Team GB has clearly invested in the technology aspect of sports. I would like to see more open funding for this type of research, so that more athletes can benefit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Martin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The science behind the suits that gave Britain’s medal-winning athletes a crucial speed boost.
Nicholas Martin, Senior Lecturer in Aerodynamics, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/83195
2017-10-11T23:17:58Z
2017-10-11T23:17:58Z
Can you be hacked by the world around you?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189211/original/file-20171006-25775-xkadt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could scanning a QR code be an invitation to malware?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/qr-code-payment-online-shopping-cashless-704697319">Zapp2Photo/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You’ve probably been told it’s dangerous to open unexpected attachment files in your email – just like you shouldn’t open suspicious packages in your mailbox. But have you been warned against scanning unknown QR codes or just taking a picture with your phone? New research suggests that cyberattackers could exploit cameras and sensors in phones and other devices.</p>
<p>As someone who researches <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/technologies3010019">3-D modeling</a>, including <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/machines3020055">assessing 3-D printed objects</a> to be sure they meet quality standards, I’m aware of being vulnerable to methods of storing malicious computer code in the physical world. Our group’s work is in the laboratory, and has not yet encountered malware hidden in 3-D printing instructions or encoded in the structure of an item being scanned. But we’re preparing for that possibility. </p>
<p>At the moment, it’s not very likely for us: An attacker would need very specialized knowledge about our system’s functions to succeed in attacking it. But the day is coming when intrusions can happen through normal communications with or sensing performed by a computer or smartphone. Product designers and users alike need to be aware of the risks. </p>
<h2>Transmitting infection</h2>
<p>In order for a device to become infected or compromised, the nefarious party has to figure out some way to get the computer to store or process the malware. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/spearphishing-roiled-the-presidential-campaign-heres-how-to-protect-yourself-68274">human at the keyboard</a> has been a common target. An attacker might send an email telling the user that he or she has won the lottery or is going to be in trouble for not responding to a work supervisor. In other cases, a virus is designed to be unwittingly triggered by routine software activities.</p>
<p>Researchers at the University of Washington tested another possibility recently, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/malware-dna-hack/">embedding a computer virus in DNA</a>. The good news is that most computers can’t catch an electronic virus from bad software – called malware – embedded in a biological one. The <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity17/technical-sessions/presentation/ney">DNA infection</a> was a test of the concept of attacking a computer equipped to read <a href="https://theconversation.com/storing-data-in-dna-brings-nature-into-the-digital-universe-78226">digital data stored in DNA</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, when our team scans a 3-D printed object, we are both storing and processing the data from the imagery that we collect. If an attacker analyzed how we do this, they could – perhaps – identify a step in our process that would be vulnerable to a compromised or corrupted piece of data. Then, they would have to design an object for us to scan that would cause us to receive these data.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189637/original/file-20171010-17684-14iwtt8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189637/original/file-20171010-17684-14iwtt8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189637/original/file-20171010-17684-14iwtt8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189637/original/file-20171010-17684-14iwtt8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189637/original/file-20171010-17684-14iwtt8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189637/original/file-20171010-17684-14iwtt8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189637/original/file-20171010-17684-14iwtt8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189637/original/file-20171010-17684-14iwtt8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 3-D scanning rig in our lab.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeremy Straub</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Closer to home, when you scan a <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-curious-comeback-of-the-dreaded-qr-code/">QR code</a>, your computer or phone processes the data in the code and takes some action – perhaps sending an email or going to a specified URL. An attacker could find a bug in a code-reader app that allows certain precisely formatted text to be executed instead of just scanned and processed. Or there could be <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45729377/ns/technology_and_science-security/t/how-qr-codes-hide-privacy-security-risks/">something designed to harm your phone</a> waiting at the target website.</p>
<h2>Imprecision as protection</h2>
<p>The good news is that most sensors have less precision than DNA sequencers. For instance, two mobile phone cameras pointed at the same subject will collect somewhat different information, based on lighting, camera position and how closely it’s zoomed in. Even small variations could render encoded malware inoperable, because the sensed data would not always be accurate enough to translate into working software. So it’s unlikely that a person’s phone would be hacked just by taking a photo of something.</p>
<p>But some systems, like QR code readers, include methods for correcting anomalies in sensed data. And when the sensing environment is highly controlled, like with our <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/machines3020055">recent work to assess 3-D printing</a>, it is easier for an attacker to affect the sensor readings more predictably.</p>
<p>What is perhaps most problematic is the ability for sensing to provide a gateway into systems that are otherwise secure and difficult to attack. For example, to prevent the infection of our 3-D printing quality sensing system by a conventional attack, we <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2264583">proposed</a> placing it on another computer, one disconnected from the internet and other sources of potential cyberattacks. But the system still must scan the 3-D printed object. A maliciously designed object could be a way to attack this otherwise disconnected system.</p>
<h2>Screening for prevention</h2>
<p>Many software developers don’t yet think about the potential for hackers to manipulate sensed data. But in 2011, Iranian government hackers were able to <a href="https://phys.org/news/2011-12-rq-drone-ambush-facts-iranian.html">capture a U.S. spy drone</a> in just this way. Programmers and computer administrators must ensure that sensed data are screened before processing, and handled securely, to prevent unexpected hijacking. </p>
<p>In addition to developing secure software, another type of system can help: An <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084804512001944">intrusion detection system</a> can look for common attacks, unusual behavior or even when things that are expected to happen don’t. They’re not perfect, of course, at times <a href="http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA391565">failing to detect attacks</a> and at others <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/357830.357849">misidentifing legitimate activities as attacks</a>.</p>
<p>Computer devices that both sense and modify the environment are becoming more common – in manufacturing robots, drones and self-driving cars, among many other examples. As that happens, the potential for attacks to include both physical and electronic elements grows significantly. Attackers may find it very attractive to embed malicious software in the physical world, just waiting for unsuspecting people to scan it with a smartphone or a more specialized device. Hidden in plain sight, the malicious software becomes a sort of “sleeper agent” that can avoid detection until it reaches its target – perhaps deep inside a secure government building, bank or hospital.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83195/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Straub is the Associate Director of the NDSU Institute for Cyber Security Education and Research. Work referenced in this article has previously been funded by the North Dakota Department of Commerce.</span></em></p>
Scanning physical items constructed with nefarious intent can introduce malware into a smartphone or computer.
Jeremy Straub, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, North Dakota State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/85229
2017-10-05T00:27:19Z
2017-10-05T00:27:19Z
Chilled proteins and 3-D images: The cryo-electron microscopy technology that just won a Nobel Prize
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188879/original/file-20171004-31791-6zhlqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cryo-electron microscopy resolution continues to improve.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nihgov/24030250059">Veronica Falconieri, Sriram Subramaniam, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people will never have heard of cryo-electron microscopy before the announcement that Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson had won the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2017/press.html">2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry</a> for their work developing this technology. So what is it, and why is it worthy of this honor?</p>
<p>Cryo-electron microscopy – or cryo-EM – is an imaging technology that allows scientists to obtain pictures of the biological “machines” that work inside our cells. Most amazingly, it can reconstruct individual snapshots into movie-like scenes that show how protein components of these biological machines move and interact with each other.</p>
<p>It’s like the difference between having a list of all of the individual parts of an engine versus being able to see the engine fully assembled and running. The parts list can tell you a lot, but there’s no replacement for seeing what you’re studying in action.</p>
<p>What’s revolutionary about cryo-EM is not only that it lets scientists actually see and understand how important biological machines work, but that it allows us to study a vast array of important proteins that can’t be seen using any other structural biology technique.</p>
<p>Advances in both imaging technology and computing have really <a href="https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2016/01/14/got-it-down-cold-cryo-electron-microscopy-named-method-of-the-year/">pushed cryo-EM forward</a> over the last decade or so. Researchers are now able to generate atomic, or near-atomic, resolution 3-D models of challenging molecules – things like receptors that are therapeutic drug targets, molecular motors that deliver cargo to different parts of the cell and emerging viruses that lead to human disease.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188869/original/file-20171004-13096-b4vg6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188869/original/file-20171004-13096-b4vg6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188869/original/file-20171004-13096-b4vg6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188869/original/file-20171004-13096-b4vg6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188869/original/file-20171004-13096-b4vg6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188869/original/file-20171004-13096-b4vg6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188869/original/file-20171004-13096-b4vg6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188869/original/file-20171004-13096-b4vg6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cryo-EM structure of the enzyme beta-galactosidase.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EMDB-2984</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Frozen world of cryo-EM</h2>
<p>To obtain an image using cryo-EM, researchers take proteins that have been biochemically purified from cells and instantaneously freeze the sample on a cryo-EM grid at -180 degrees Celsius. The goal of this process is to trap many copies of a single protein or a protein complex in a thin layer of vitrified ice.</p>
<p>This ice is transparent to the microscope’s electron beam and allows the proteins to retain their natural shape and organization. If the sample is frozen too slowly, then ice crystals form, ruining the structure of the molecules being studied and disrupting the electrons traveling through the sample.</p>
<p>A major advantage of this technique is that it saves time and work. Cryo-EM’s ability to look at proteins in a near-native state is in stark contrast with X-ray crystallography, the longstanding gold standard for obtaining high-resolution biomolecular images. The older technique requires the formation of ordered crystals, where the proteins must first self-organize together in repeating patterns – at best a tricky challenge, at worst an impossible one for certain molecules. With cryo-EM, there’s no need to coax biological molecules into ordered arrays.</p>
<p>Once the cryo-EM sample has been frozen, a focused beam of electrons reveals the shape of these very small, nanometer-sized proteins. (A nanometer is about one million times smaller than the tip of a needle.) Each image contains all the information required to determine the 3-D structure. But these raw images are extremely “noisy” and hard to see, so large numbers of images for each sample must be collected using the microscope.</p>
<p>Specialized computer analysis then combines hundreds of thousands of individual, 2-D snapshots from different angles into a composite that can be viewed in 3-D. Many 3-D structures determined by cryo-EM are now at a high enough resolution that researchers can visualize individual atoms in the structures.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188863/original/file-20171004-31791-1qpxueu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188863/original/file-20171004-31791-1qpxueu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188863/original/file-20171004-31791-1qpxueu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188863/original/file-20171004-31791-1qpxueu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188863/original/file-20171004-31791-1qpxueu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188863/original/file-20171004-31791-1qpxueu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188863/original/file-20171004-31791-1qpxueu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188863/original/file-20171004-31791-1qpxueu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Noisy raw images are on the right. Individual complexes are computationally boxed out to create galleries of particles, based on millions of images (in the middle). These individual particles are then aligned and averaged to generate 2-D images based on thousands of individual particles trapped in the vitrified ice in similar orientations (on the right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melanie Ohi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Software can also sort out proteins that are in different stages of a biological process – thus helping piece together how a biological machine moves, changes and functions. Then researchers can further test how the machine’s organization leads to specific functions in a living cell.</p>
<p>For example, several years ago researchers here at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute obtained the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13423">first 3-D snapshots of the “assembly line”</a> within microorganisms that naturally produces a broad class of compounds <a href="https://youtu.be/IUw3fvpinSs">known as polyketides</a>, which includes antibiotics and other drugs. This information then gives investigators a solid blueprint for figuring out how they might redesign the microbial assembly line to produce new drugs.</p>
<p>One of the challenges of working with cryo-EM is that it requires massive amounts of computational power and data storage. One cryo-EM movie of 30 to 60 frames requires up to 8 gigabytes of storage – it would take only a couple of these movies to fill up most smartphones. About a thousand of these movies are collected in a day, requiring somewhere between one and eight terabytes of storage (or about 8,000 smartphones’ worth). A full data set for one 3-D structure can require 4,000 movies.</p>
<p>These data sets often take hundreds of thousands of hours of computer processor time to piece together. Researchers rely on supercomputers that use many processors working in parallel. The most advanced cryo-electron microscopes and accompanying computing tools require significant investments on the parts of universities, which is why they’re still relatively rare. For example, buying just the microscope and specialized camera needed to collect these cryo-EM images costs well over US$5 million.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188876/original/file-20171004-30164-zcgbuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188876/original/file-20171004-30164-zcgbuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188876/original/file-20171004-30164-zcgbuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188876/original/file-20171004-30164-zcgbuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188876/original/file-20171004-30164-zcgbuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188876/original/file-20171004-30164-zcgbuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188876/original/file-20171004-30164-zcgbuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188876/original/file-20171004-30164-zcgbuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Resolution of the technology has radically improved in the last few years, from mostly showing shapeless blobs to now being able to visualize proteins at atomic resolution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2017/press.html">© Martin Högbom/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Putting the technology to work</h2>
<p>While the technology and technique are interesting, the true power of the tool is its ability to help us answer important biological questions.</p>
<p>In the Cianfrocco lab, for example, we’re using cryo-EM to look at the dynamic process of how molecular “motors” move along microtubular “tracks” inside cells. We want to figure out the basics of how cells know what to move, when. While much work has gone into identifying the necessary building blocks for moving cargo around the cell, the molecular details remain unknown.</p>
<p>It’s these motors that move things around the cell that aren’t working correctly in Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Learning more about how they’re malfunctioning will be critical for developing new therapeutics for these neurodegenerative diseases. Viruses also hijack these these motor proteins during infection, which means understanding more about how they walk will help researchers design effective treatments against viruses such as HIV and rabies.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188878/original/file-20171004-22112-1hkav2y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188878/original/file-20171004-22112-1hkav2y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188878/original/file-20171004-22112-1hkav2y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188878/original/file-20171004-22112-1hkav2y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188878/original/file-20171004-22112-1hkav2y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188878/original/file-20171004-22112-1hkav2y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188878/original/file-20171004-22112-1hkav2y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188878/original/file-20171004-22112-1hkav2y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Melanie Ohi with grad student Amanda Erwin outside the cryo-electron microscope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lesia Thompson Photography for the University of Michigan</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And in the Ohi lab, we’re generating detailed 3-D structures of the molecular machines bacteria use to spread disease. Biological pathogens have evolved numerous ways to infect their hosts, including toxins that alter cellular functions and complex secretion systems that inject DNA and proteins into host cells. Using 3-D snapshots of these machines, we’re hoping to find new ways to target the processes bacteria use to cause disease, such as the bacteria <em>Helicobacter pylori</em>’s ability to trigger chronic inflammation, which is a major risk factor for stomach cancer. </p>
<p>One of the larger questions for the field is how to make the specialized and expensive resources required for cryo-EM more broadly available to researchers across the country and around the world. To this end, the Cianfrocco lab is developing two separate cloud computing resources with the goal to streamline cryo-EM data processing to allow structural biologists to focus on the biology, not the hardware. By removing the computing bottlenecks, these tools have the potential to continue the growth of cryo-EM into a mainstream technique for scientists worldwide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Cianfrocco has consulted on cryo-EM for pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms and is also a science advisor to Single Particle LLC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Ohi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry goes to three scientists who revolutionized biochemistry by inventing a technology that can image the molecules of life without destroying them.
Melanie Ohi, Research Associate Professor, U-M Life Sciences Institute and and Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, U-M Medical School, University of Michigan
Michael Cianfrocco, Research Assistant Professor at U-M Life Sciences Institute and Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry, U-M Medical School, University of Michigan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/77026
2017-05-03T16:01:27Z
2017-05-03T16:01:27Z
An artist’s lens on the wonders of the world brings science to life
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167476/original/file-20170502-17267-jbzpkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A baby Hawaiian bobtail squid, measuring just 1.5cm across, is pictured using photomacrography.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark R Smith/Macroscopic Solutions </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1665 <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/robert-hooke-9343172">Robert Hooke</a>, the English pioneer of microscopy, published a groundbreaking book called <a href="http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item107702.html">Micrographia</a>. It was filled with meticulous observations of plant cells and insects and demonstrated how Hooke appreciated the communicative power of the image.</p>
<p>Over the next two centuries microscopes kept advancing. As they did, scientists and artists often worked together to examine and reveal the living world’s inner complexities. The images that emerged were immensely valuable to advancing science. They also revealed the spectacle of life to a wider audience.</p>
<p>Then came the 19th century and the emergence of photography. It wasn’t long before the camera and the microscope were united to create the new discipline of microphotography. The artist’s interpretive role became less important. Technology placed the imaging solely in the hands of the scientist – which came with pitfalls. As the technology became more sophisticated and the science more complex, access to this knowledge became increasingly restricted to academic and scientific institutions.</p>
<p>Happily this is changing. Over the past 20 years digital technologies have arrived that are common to science, art and design practice. There’s been an explosion of remarkable high definition, full chroma images. These, coupled with the internet’s power to disseminate images and knowledge, have allowed ordinary people beyond academia and scientific laboratories to witness everything from the outermost extremes of our universe to the inner mechanisms of a human cell.</p>
<p>This is important: a better understanding of science among ordinary people validates the vast amounts of public funds spent on scientific research. It also underpins the benefits that feed directly back into society. </p>
<h2>Celebrating scientists’ images</h2>
<p>As people have once again come to understand the important way artistic practices can be used by scientists to create images and objects to captivate ordinary audiences, new initiatives have sprung up to encourage this. Some of these have encouraged scientists and artists to work together, to share knowledge and to create new ways of seeing and communicating</p>
<p>The Wellcome Images of Science Awards is one such initiative. It was launched in 1997 and aims to bring the work of science research to a wider audience. It’s also a way to inform people about the spectacular images that scientists and artists create, and to celebrate them. I am on the <a href="http://www.wellcomeimageawards.org/about/judges/robert-kesseler/">panel of judges</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167500/original/file-20170502-17281-sdc89i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167500/original/file-20170502-17281-sdc89i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167500/original/file-20170502-17281-sdc89i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167500/original/file-20170502-17281-sdc89i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167500/original/file-20170502-17281-sdc89i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167500/original/file-20170502-17281-sdc89i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167500/original/file-20170502-17281-sdc89i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167500/original/file-20170502-17281-sdc89i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 3D model shows the vessels of a healthy mini pig eye.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter M Maloca, OCTlab at the University of Basel and Moorfields Eye Hospital, London; Christian Schwaller; Ruslan Hlushchuk, University of Bern; Sébastien Barré</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the past 20 years the award has reflected many sophisticated advances in biomedical science and how they’re visualised. The range of techniques increasingly sound like they’ve been lifted from a sci-fi novel: diffusion tensor tractography, Optical Coherence Tomography, thermal imaging. Part of the award’s role is to demystify these terms, getting scientists <a href="http://www.wellcomeimageawards.org/">talking about</a> their work and methods.</p>
<p>Such explanations are, of course, important. The sheer beauty and complexity of a mouse’s retinal surface – created by Gabriel Luna using confocal microscopy – adds another dimension. But his technique doesn’t just produce beautiful images: confocal microscopy is hugely beneficial to patients because it’s non-invasive. It also enables a better understanding of eye disease and can be shared by researchers across multiple locations. </p>
<h2>Images offer new insights</h2>
<p>Images have always mattered in science. And new techniques echo the old: one of the <a href="http://www.wellcomeimageawards.org/2017/language-pathways-of-the-brain">entries</a> in this year’s awards, a model of the eye and of the 3D brain pathway by Stephanie J Forkel and Ahmad Bey, brings to mind scholars in Renaissance Italy who used wax anatomical models to reveal that body’s interior organs and vessels. </p>
<p>Understanding the brain with its infinite complex functions and by extension its misfunctions has long been the holy grail of science. The 3D model of a brain pathway is so mesmerising because it renders visible the very mechanism in our brain we are using to look at it. It’s a neurological portrait.</p>
<p>Data, too, can produce startling images. The work of Eric Clarke, Richard Arnett and Jane Burns is a graphical visualisation of data extracted from tweets containing the <a href="http://www.wellcomeimageawards.org/2017/breast-cancer-Twitter-connections">hashtag #breastcancer</a>. The result is a beautiful starburst of pointillist coloured nodes; a complex representation of convergent energies that creates an almost mandala-like effect. Here, too, there are echoes of past scientific images: this visualisation is reminiscent of the complex cosmological works of the 17th century physician <a href="https://publicdomainreview.org/2011/09/13/robert-fludd-and-his-images-of-the-divine/">Robert Fludd</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167501/original/file-20170502-17254-1ihjotl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167501/original/file-20170502-17254-1ihjotl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167501/original/file-20170502-17254-1ihjotl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167501/original/file-20170502-17254-1ihjotl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167501/original/file-20170502-17254-1ihjotl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167501/original/file-20170502-17254-1ihjotl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167501/original/file-20170502-17254-1ihjotl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167501/original/file-20170502-17254-1ihjotl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blood vessels of the African grey parrot, rendered in 3D.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Birch and Scott Echols</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Images are not always what they seem at first glance. The very subtle, aqueous hues of the <a href="http://www.wellcomeimageawards.org/2017/hawaiian-bobtail-squid">Hawaiian Bobtail Squid</a> by Mark R Smith appear almost like a watercolour and are particularly resonant of the aquatic environment in which the squid lives. Its mysterious form and striking patterns reflect our continued fascination with marine life. They also hark back to illustrations by the 19th century zoologist Ernst Haeckel in his celebrated book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Art-Forms-Nature-Prints-Haeckel/dp/3791319906">Art Forms of Nature</a>.</p>
<p>These fascinating images and others like them show how the study of life by scientists and artists always commands our attention. They also draw us in to share the sense of wonder and enquiry that drives their creators – and to understand why scientific research matters so much.</p>
<p><em>An exhibition featuring all the 2017 winners is running at the Unizulu Science Centre in Richards Bay, South Africa, from 22 May 2017 for the remainder of the year. This is being done in partnership with the <a href="http://www.africacentre.ac.za/">Africa Health Research Institute</a>. It’s one of <a href="http://www.wellcomeimageawards.org/about/about-the-awards/">a series</a> of global exhibitions – and the only one on the African continent.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Kesseler receives funding from:
NESTA Fellow at Kew 2001 -04.
Year of Bio-diversity Fellow, Gulbenkian Science Institute Portugal. 2010
Wellcome Trust, judge for Images of Science Award.
Chair of Arts Design & Science, University of the Arts London</span></em></p>
A better understanding of science among ordinary people validates the vast amounts of public funds spent on scientific research.
Rob Kesseler, Chair of Arts, Design & Science, University of the Arts London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/72697
2017-03-09T04:20:17Z
2017-03-09T04:20:17Z
From the mundane to the divine, some of the best-designed products of all time
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159814/original/image-20170307-14941-ufygy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=66%2C9%2C2993%2C2104&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Poul Henningsen's Artichoke Lamp, viewed from below at London's Park Plaza Hotel.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Artichoke_lamp_from_below.jpg">Doc Searls/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A well-designed product equally elevates form and function. It is pleasing to look at, easy to use and solves a common problem.</em></p>
<p><em>We reached out to five design professors and posed the following question: What’s the best-designed product of all time, and why?</em></p>
<p><em>Their responses vary from cheap, everyday products to newer, more expensive ones. But all share a story of trial, error and ingenuity.</em> </p>
<hr>
<h2>Cutting the glare</h2>
<p><strong>Catherine Anderson, The George Washington University</strong></p>
<p>In the early 1920s, as Danish designer Poul Henningsen observed Copenhagen at night, he lamented the quality of light in people’s homes. <a href="http://www.kosmorama.org/ServiceMenu/05-English/Articles/Lamps-Light-and-Enlightenment.aspx">He noticed</a> that the incandescent bulbs – sometimes bare, sometimes surrounded by a single shade – created “arrows of light” and a harsh glare. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.scandinaviandesign.com/poulHenningsen/index.htm">Henningsen set out to create a new design</a> that would mitigate this “dismal” effect; it would be “…constructed with the most difficult and noble task in mind: lighting in the home.” </p>
<p>“The aim is to beautify the home and who lived there,” <a href="https://www.scandinaviandesign.com/poulHenningsen/index.htm">he wrote</a>, “to make the evening restful and relaxing.” </p>
<p>His approach was <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/scanstud.85.1.0079?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">scientific</a>. He rigorously examined how using multiple shades could cast a warm glow of light within a room.</p>
<p>In 1924, the “PH lamp” was born.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159826/original/image-20170307-14966-pnt12j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159826/original/image-20170307-14966-pnt12j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159826/original/image-20170307-14966-pnt12j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159826/original/image-20170307-14966-pnt12j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159826/original/image-20170307-14966-pnt12j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159826/original/image-20170307-14966-pnt12j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159826/original/image-20170307-14966-pnt12j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poul Henningsen’s PH lamp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PH-Lampan_1.jpg">Holger.Ellgaard/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s delightful to look at. But most importantly, <a href="http://www.lauritz.com/en/ph-3-2/a3880/0/0/?sflang=da">it emits</a> a light that’s forgiving to the eye – an effect that’s created by the multiple shades, which evenly distribute the light. This creates a soft halo that attenuates the contrast between the light source and the surrounding darkness. </p>
<p>Henningsen’s sleek, spare lamp was <a href="https://www.phillips.com/article/5689896/the-lights-of-poul-henningsen">awarded a gold medal</a> at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. Over the years, it inspired many offshoots, such as the <a href="http://www.louispoulsen.com/int/products/indoor/pendants/ph-artichoke/c-24/c-1422/p-55590">Artichoke Lamp</a>, and became a product worthy of kings: In 1938, a train compartment for Danish King Christian X <a href="http://www.palainco.com/discover/item/miracles-called-ph-lamps-part-2/">included one of Henningsen’s lamps</a>.</p>
<p>All underscore the strength of the original design, <a href="http://www.dwr.com/sale-great-deals/ph5-pendant-lamp/137089.html?lang=en_US&adpos=1o1&creative=96969738159&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=COSE86q3x9ICFZmCswodzlYK9A">which can still be bought today</a>. </p>
<hr>
<h2>Holding it together</h2>
<p><strong>Lorraine Justice, Rochester Institute of Technology</strong></p>
<p>For years I took the simple paper clip for granted. As a kid I’d twist them apart to hang Christmas ornaments. In my teens I’d use them to shoot rubber bands at my friends. And in the 1990s I’d straighten them to pop a software floppy disk from a defective hard drive. </p>
<p>It wasn’t until I became a design student that I realized the paper clip – which is officially patented as a <a href="http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/arts/design/2012/05/paperclip/120521_Design_Paperclip_image5_gemads.jpg.CROP.article568-large.jpg">“gem paper clip”</a> – was a near-perfect design: elegant, functional and made of steel, a sustainable and recyclable material. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159832/original/image-20170307-14946-1ukn9sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159832/original/image-20170307-14946-1ukn9sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159832/original/image-20170307-14946-1ukn9sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159832/original/image-20170307-14946-1ukn9sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159832/original/image-20170307-14946-1ukn9sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159832/original/image-20170307-14946-1ukn9sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159832/original/image-20170307-14946-1ukn9sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">11 billion sold in America – per year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=1DzI6z9nAFfuuwz0lP5khQ-1-73">'Paperclip' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the paper clip had a long path to the flawless form we know today.</p>
<p><a href="http://inventors.about.com/od/famousinventions/fl/The-History-of-the-Paperclip.htm">The paper clip started out</a> as a pin that pierced the papers to hold them together. The sharp pins would prick the workers using them and were difficult to use. Thus began the gradual improvements: The straight pin morphed into something called a T-pin, a device with a horizontal wire on the end that allowed the pin to be pushed more easily through the papers without needlessly pricking fingers. However, this design still left holes in the papers. </p>
<p>In the late 1890s inventors in the United States and Europe began to work on new versions of the paper clip. In 1898, Pennsylvania inventor Matthew Schooley <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=b-6LDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=henry+petroski+%22From+Pins+to+Paper+Clips%22&source=bl&ots=TyZ1wue050&sig=PRvWf2yNsnfhrqGSxKgcI_Pheiw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-lvHy18LSAhXD7iYKHagkBu4Q6AEIKzAD#v=onepage&q=henry%20petroski%20%22From%20Pins%20to%20Paper%20Clips%22&f=false">believed he had improved upon the pin design</a> by creating two loops in the wire. But there was still a problem: A piece of wire extended from the loops and would catch and rip the paper. Many other inventors <a href="http://gizmodo.com/why-is-the-paper-clip-shaped-like-it-is-1699985310">introduced various clasps, clips and metal-stamped designs</a>, all in an effort to create a reusable paper binder that would be cheap, safe and secure. </p>
<p>Finally, in 1899, an inventor from Connecticut named William Middlebrook designed the gem paper clip, along with <a href="http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00636272&homeurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect2%3DPTO1%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html%2526r%3D1%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526d%3DPALL%2526S1%3D0636272.PN.%2526OS%3DPN%2F636272%2526RS%3DPN%2F636272&PageNum=&Rtype=&SectionNum=&idkey=NONE&Input=View+first+page">a machine to manufacture it</a>, to create the paper clip that we know today. </p>
<p>The iconic double loop design had just enough spring to hold several sheets of paper together – without snapping and without piercing fingers or paper. Today, Americans <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/americans-buy-11-billion-paper-clips-year/338575/">buy 11 billion paper clips every year</a>, though they aren’t all used for binding pieces of paper – I doubt Middlebrook could have imagined that his invention would double as an ornament hanger and rubber band launcher.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Terminal waits</h2>
<p><strong>Craig M. Vogel, University of Cincinnati</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.eamesoffice.com/the-work/eames-tandem-seating-2/">In 1958</a>, architect Eero Saarinen, who had been tasked with designing the main terminal for Washington Dulles International Airport, approached furniture designers Charles and Ray Eames – already famous for their <a href="http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/lounge-chair-and-ottoman-no-670-and-671-505139">Eames Lounge Chair</a> – with a request: He wanted a public seating system for the terminal that was affordable, sturdy, stylish and versatile.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.hermanmiller.com/products/seating/public-seating/eames-tandem-sling-seating.html">In 1962</a>, the husband and wife team unveiled their tandem sling seating system. Even though it was designed to complement Saarinen’s terminal, it was so practical that it quickly became <a href="http://apex.aero/airport-seating-design-pod">one of the most common seating solutions</a> for airports around the United States – and, eventually, the world.</p>
<p>Because public seating gets so much use, it needs to be sturdy and easy to maintain. Cost is always an issue, so designers are often hamstrung if they want to make something that’s aesthetically pleasing.</p>
<p>An iconic example of the principles of midcentury modernist design, Eames’ seating system was an elegant and simple solution to all of these problems. It ships in parts, is easy to put together and maintain, and is tamper-proof.</p>
<p>The chairs are sturdy but lack a cumbersome support structure, which makes it easy to clean the floor under the seats. <a href="https://www.hermanmiller.com/content/dam/hermanmiller/documents/pricing/PB_ETS.pdf">The configuration is flexible</a>: Rows can be as small as two seats and as long as eight. </p>
<p>Furthermore, there are only three main materials used in the design: aluminum, vinyl and neoprene (a synthetic rubber). Even though the materials are cheap, they look expensive and upscale. The sling seat cushion slides into a slot and never tears. Meanwhile, the width of the seat accommodates a wide range of body types. </p>
<p>And if travelers miss their flight and need to spend the night in the terminal, the seat and seat back are angled in a way – like the Eames Lounge Chair – that allows its occupant to get some shut-eye. </p>
<hr>
<h2>Dial ‘D’ for design</h2>
<p><strong>Kalle Lyytinen, Case Western Reserve University</strong></p>
<p>American industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss’ AT&T Model 500 phone is one of the most iconic and recognizable products of the 20th century. The phone – together with its design process – was a harbinger of many design principles used today. </p>
<p>Rotary phones – which feature a round dial with finger holes – first emerged in the early 20th century. But many of these were bolted to the walls or <a href="http://www.sparkmuseum.com/images/Telephone/1921%20Auto-%20Elec%20Strt-Shaft%20Dial%20Candle.JPG">required two separate devices for speaking and listening</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, early telephone users would call into operators, who would use a switchboard to connect callers. When this process became automated, designers needed to figure out a way to offer an intuitive interface, since callers would be dialing more complicated number sequences (essentially doing the “switching” on their own). </p>
<p>Though earlier models came close to addressing these needs, the 500 model elevated the design, adding several functions that forever changed the way phones would be used. </p>
<p>AT&T’s first rotary phone in 1927 (dubbed <a href="http://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/images/1928_desk_set.jpg">“the French Phone”</a>) had an integrated handset for both the loudspeaker and the microphone, but it was cumbersome to use. Meanwhile, Dreyfuss’ earlier model from 1936, <a href="https://www.cooperhewitt.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Dreyfuss_302-560x424.jpg">the 302</a>, was made out of metal and also had an awkwardly shaped handset. </p>
<p>Then, in 1949, his Model 500 came along. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159834/original/image-20170307-14939-6wwt1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159834/original/image-20170307-14939-6wwt1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159834/original/image-20170307-14939-6wwt1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159834/original/image-20170307-14939-6wwt1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159834/original/image-20170307-14939-6wwt1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159834/original/image-20170307-14939-6wwt1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159834/original/image-20170307-14939-6wwt1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159834/original/image-20170307-14939-6wwt1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Do your grandparents still have a Model 500?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WE500dialphone.jpg">ProhibitOnions/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Employing new plastic technology, the phone’s handset was smooth, rounded and proportional, an improvement on unwieldy earlier versions. <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Henry_Dreyfuss_Industrial_Designer.html?id=afRTAAAAMAAJ">It was the first</a> to use letters below the numbers in the rotary – a boon for businesses, since phone numbers could now be advertised (and remembered) as mnemonic phrases (think American Express’ “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVNHuqsHigo">1-800-THE-CARD</a>”).</p>
<p>The 500 phone was also the first to undergo a design process <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Henry_Dreyfuss_Industrial_Designer.html?id=afRTAAAAMAAJ">that used ergonomic (comfort) and cognitive experts</a>. AT&T and Dreyfuss hired <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/business/john-e-karlin-who-led-the-way-to-all-digit-dialing-dies-at-94.html">John Karlin</a>, the first industrial psychologist in the world, to conduct experiments to evaluate aspects of the design. Through extensive consumer testing, the designers were able to tweak all minutiae of the product – <a href="http://www.papress.com/html/product.details.dna?isbn=9781616892913">even minor details</a> like placing white dots beneath the holes in the finger wheel and the length of the cord. </p>
<p>Including its later incarnations, the phone would go on to sell nearly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/11/bib/970511.rv092249.html">162 million units</a> – around one per American household – and become a presence in living rooms, kitchens and offices for decades to come.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Changing the way we work and play</h2>
<p><strong>Carla Viviana Coleman, University of Maryland, Baltimore County</strong></p>
<p>In recent years, virtual reality glasses have hit the market. They don’t come cheap: Most cost US$3,000 to $5,000.</p>
<p>But one of these models – the Microsoft HoloLens – <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/27/14411744/microsoft-hololens-sales-numbers">has sold thousands of units</a> since its first shipment in 2016. </p>
<p>The HoloLens allows users to interact with a 3D digital world and simultaneously see what’s around them in the real world. In order to operate the interface, users can make hand gestures, talk or simply gaze. </p>
<p>The product was designed with ergonomics in mind: Users can adjust the head size, the head band and glasses. The weight – distributed throughout the crown area – prevents pressure on the nose and ears. Users can even wear their own glasses or wear their hair up in a pony tail. This is a key difference from most VR headsets – like the <a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7zqp1szDWyA/maxresdefault.jpg">HTC Vive</a> – which are heavy, cumbersome products. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159850/original/image-20170307-14957-3tsqrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159850/original/image-20170307-14957-3tsqrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159850/original/image-20170307-14957-3tsqrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159850/original/image-20170307-14957-3tsqrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159850/original/image-20170307-14957-3tsqrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159850/original/image-20170307-14957-3tsqrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159850/original/image-20170307-14957-3tsqrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159850/original/image-20170307-14957-3tsqrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The future is holo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ramahololens.jpg">Ramadhanakbr/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While one could easily imagine a new generation of video games being designed for the HoloLens, a number of employers have realized the glasses can improve workplace productivity and ease the burdens of certain jobs.</p>
<p>For example, the company ThyssenKrupp, which manufactures elevators and escalators, <a href="https://www.thyssenkrupp.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/press-release-114208.html">has begun giving HoloLenses to its elevator technicians</a>, with the idea that the glasses will allow them to access data much more efficiently. The employees can multitask, choosing either to lift up the spherical visor or to keep it in front of their eyes as needed – all while working in a cramped elevator shaft.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, medical schools are using the HoloLens <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKpKlh1-en0">to train doctors</a> without using cadavers, while Volvo is using it <a href="https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/volvo-is-the-first-automaker-to-add-microsoft-hololens-to-its-engineering-toolkit/">to design new car models</a>.</p>
<p>If the price goes down, the market for this product – currently in the thousands – could easily multiply into millions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
We asked five design experts – what’s your favorite product of all time, and why?
Catherine Anderson, Assistant Professor of Interior Architecture and Design, George Washington University
Carla Viviana Coleman, Assistant Professor of Design, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Craig M. Vogel, Director of the Center for Design Research and Innovation, University of Cincinnati
Kalle Lyytinen, Iris S. Wolstein Professor of Management Design, Case Western Reserve University
Lorraine Justice, Dean of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/64089
2016-10-26T03:23:31Z
2016-10-26T03:23:31Z
Preserving fright, one haunted house at a time
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135191/original/image-20160823-30238-1vnacs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A virtual reality scene – one for each eye – of a haunted ride.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Zika</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I vividly remember my first haunted house ride – it was at the local fairgrounds, just a temporary carnival truck, more façade than ride. I must have been about seven or eight, and I insisted on bringing along a flashlight. I was quite a fearful child; in this case I hoped the flashlight would break through the darkened illusion and I might sneak a look at the ride’s inner workings. I failed miserably: As the ride spun and jolted my flashlight was always a second late. The monsters and spooks jumped out before I could anticipate them; the car hit walls of fake spiders. My light was of little use.</p>
<p>For most of the 20th century, dark rides – as these kinds of rides are called – offered thrills and surprises, and no small dose of fear, to riders bumping along in carts passing through animatronic scenes. But they are rapidly disappearing. In the decade of my professional life I have spent experiencing and documenting these rides around the world, I have seen many great haunted attractions and parks close. Of the thousands of rides created between 1900 and 1970, <a href="http://laffinthedark.com/lists/operating.htm">only 18 still exist</a>. </p>
<p>The closure of Williams Grove, the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3537025/Seph-Lawless-pictures-Bushkill-Park-abandoned-amusement-park-near-Easton-Pennsylvania-oldest-funhouse-America.html">flooding of Bushkill Park</a>, the <a href="http://www.abandonedfl.com/miracle-strip-amusement-park/">sale of Miracle Strip</a> or the <a href="http://www1.gmnews.com/2013/04/11/superstorm-proves-no-match-for-keansburg-amusement-park-8/">destruction of the Spookhouse by Hurricane Sandy</a> have saddened the thousands of fans of these parks. But they have also laid waste to an important record of our popular culture history that should not be left in the dark. </p>
<p>These rides were the virtual reality experiences of their day. Far surpassing cinema, they had sound effects, atmospheric effects and 360-degree immersive space. To preserve them in a way that does these rides justice, my work, the <a href="http://www.darkrideproject.com/">Dark Ride Project</a>, is capturing and archiving the experience of riding the last remaining ghost trains and haunted house rides using today’s digital virtual reality technology. </p>
<p>Most recently, we’ve been visiting the <a href="http://www.wonderwheel.com/adult-rides.html#verticalTab3">Spook-A-Rama ride</a> at <a href="http://www.wonderwheel.com/">Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park</a> in Coney Island, New York. Built in 1955, this classic ride was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and was painstakingly restored by the family that owns the park. On Halloween, we’ll release <a href="http://www.darkrideproject.com/">new footage preserving the ride in VR</a>, so it will never be under threat again.</p>
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<h2>A history of dark rides</h2>
<p>The earliest dark rides were the “old mill” rides, which started showing up in the 1900s – there’s still one at <a href="http://www.dafe.org/articles/darkrides/darkSideOfKennywood.html">Kennywood Park</a> in Pittsburgh. Participants floated down a tunnel on log rafts, the way logs used to be transported downriver to mills in the 19th century. The buildings were dark inside, mirroring the real-life mills that lay abandoned across the landscape. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘old mill’ ride at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh still operates today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Zika</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These floating dark rides sent participants through a series of choreographed vignettes with electric lighting switching automatically on and off as each raft went by. The winding point of view coupled with the sequence of images from either side of the track created a complex narrative and spatial experience. This new way of telling a story involved all of the audience’s senses, including the smells of the mechanics, the splashes of water and the touch of hanging props in the dark. In these experiences, viewers would engage intimately with animatronic characters and live actors, looking left and right in surprise. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rrynjbWp5t0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Understanding the importance of dark rides.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was truly an immersive mass medium. Back then, a blockbuster book was more likely to be adapted into a dark ride experience than made into a movie. In 1901, for example, Jules Verne’s novel “From The Earth to the Moon” was <a href="https://www.academia.edu/13432353/Journey_to_the_Moon_The_First_Interactive_Narrative">made into a dark ride for the Buffalo World’s Fair</a> – a year before the legendary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNLZntSdyKE">French cinematic version</a> by George Melies. That ride, which was built by Frederick Thompson, would later go on to tour the country and eventually become the namesake of <a href="http://lunaparknyc.com/">Coney Island’s Luna Park</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1920s, the Depression, the rise of the motor car and the advent of cinema meant that the traditional fairground had a less captive audience. Cities grew but the fairgrounds that were home to these dark rides struggled and began to fall into disrepair. The 1930s saw the rise of the dark ride that we know today, a pragmatic, inexpensive and often ad-hoc form of entertainment. Parks could buy ride carts and build their own sets and scenes. The <a href="http://www.laffinthedark.com/articles/pretzelride/pretzelride1.htm">Pretzel Amusement Ride Company</a> was the most prolific of the time, producing more than 1,400 rides that found homes across America and the world.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leon Cassidy’s patent for the ride that would later be known as ‘The Pretzel.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.google.com/patents/USRE18544">U.S. Patent Office</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The company got its name from the patented ride design that saw the track bend in on itself, like a pretzel. Pretzel rides were cheap to build and maximized the length of the ride – and thereby the experience – given a particular amount of space. The patent drawings show a scripted set of trigger points for sound effects and lighting and could easily be the level maps for a computer game.</p>
<p>Leon Cassidy and Marvin Rempfer started building Pretzel rides in 1928, but even with Cassidy’s son making them until the late 1970s, there are now only four <a href="http://www.syracuse.com/kirst/index.ssf/2003/07/at_sylvan_beach_classic_low-tech_laffland_dark_ride_offers_high_excitement.html">left in operation</a>. My documentary journey began at <a href="http://lunapark.com.au/attractions/ghost-train/">Luna Park’s Ghost Train</a>, built by the Pretzel company in 1936, and where I tested the system throughout 2015-16 before taking it on the road.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CpceUfM87lE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How the setup travels.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Planning the preservation</h2>
<p>Until now there has been no attempt to make a comprehensive archive of this enormous piece of American popular history. Doing so involves some difficult technical challenges, the solutions to which are evolving as the project goes on. The chief aim is ensuring that there is a clear record of what was in the ride and how it felt. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.darkrideproject.com">Dark Ride Project</a> records a VR experience by sending ultra-low-light cameras on multiple passes of the ride. Then we use computer software to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEz45GNN5Vw">stitch the resulting video</a> into a seamless 360-degree video.</p>
<p>In this way, the rides are captured as they are to be experienced – the footage captures the bumps and shakes of the cart, and doesn’t shy away from moments of total darkness. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Accelerometer data allows computerized rendering of a ride’s path.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Zika</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike my childhood attempt with the flashlight, we don’t want to break the illusion, so we use a <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-642-77557-4">process called photogrammetry</a> to create complex digital 3D models with the photo data. It allows us to record more about the physical space that lies behind the ride. </p>
<p>We capture these data in conjunction with accelerometer data, which gives us metric information on the speed, direction and location of the cart. This extra information helps build a true academic archive to support the two-dimensional media, recording more about what the ride is doing. The captured jolts and bumps can be recreated using Deakin University’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3453196.htm">universal motion simulator</a> in conjunction with VR optics.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The universal motion simulator allows a full-body VR experience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Zika</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The result is an experience that is confusing and disorienting but uniquely accurate. It has brought tears to the eyes of nostalgic fans.</p>
<p>So far our work has documented six rides across five parks, from the standalone Haunted House in Oxford, Alabama, to the gravity-propelled classic at Camden Park, West Virginia. Visitors can see <a href="http://www.darkrideproject.com/">previews of all the parks online</a>. We’ve just <a href="http://igg.me/at/darkrideproject">raised nearly US$14,000 to digitally preserve</a> the remaining eight rides left in the U.S. – including Coney Island’s Spook-A-Rama. We’ll need more funding to capture other sites around the world.</p>
<p>Once that is achieved, we hope to expand our work beyond preserving and presenting the dynamic VR content. That includes studying and filming the parks that house these rides, the people who build and maintain them and the communities that love and cherish them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64089/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Zika is the founder of the Dark Ride Project a not for profit initiative</span></em></p>
The virtual reality rides of the early 20th century are now being documented in digital VR.
Joel Zika, Lecturer In Visual Communication Design, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/63430
2016-09-12T15:40:08Z
2016-09-12T15:40:08Z
Fossil evidence reveals that cancer in humans goes back 1.7 million years
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137218/original/image-20160909-13375-q954u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The earliest hominin cancer.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patrick Randolph-Quinney (University of Central Lancashire/University of the Witwatersrand)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cancer is often viewed as a fundamentally modern and monolithic disease. Many people think its rise and spread has been driven almost exclusively by the developed world’s toxins and poisons; by our bad eating habits, lifestyles, and the very air we breathe.</p>
<p>Actually, cancer is not a single disease. It is also far from modern. New fossil evidence suggests that its origins lie deep in prehistory.</p>
<p>We recently published two papers in the South African Journal of Science that describe the discovery and diagnosis of the <a href="http://sajs.co.za/osteogenic-tumour-australopithecus-sediba-earliest-hominin-evidence-neoplastic-disease/patrick-s-randolph-quinney-scott-williams-maryna-steyn-marc-r-meyer-jacqueline-s-smilg-steven-e">earliest benign tumour</a> and <a href="http://sajs.co.za/earliest-hominin-cancer-1-7-million-year-old-osteosarcoma-swartkrans-cave-south-africa/edward-j-odes-patrick-s-randolph-quinney-maryna-steyn-zach-throckmorton-jacqueline-s-smilg-bernhard">earliest malignant cancer</a> to affect the human family.</p>
<p>Tumours and cancers are collectively known as <a href="http://www.cancerantiquity.org/neoplastic-disease">neoplastic diseases</a>. Until now, the oldest evidence of neoplasia in the hominin fossil record dated back <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0064539">120,000 years</a>. This was found in a rib fragment of a Neanderthal from Krapina in Croatia. </p>
<p>But our <a href="http://sajs.co.za/earliest-hominin-cancer-1-7-million-year-old-osteosarcoma-swartkrans-cave-south-africa/edward-j-odes-patrick-s-randolph-quinney-maryna-steyn-zach-throckmorton-jacqueline-s-smilg-bernhard">discovery</a>, in two South African cave sites, offers definitive evidence of cancer in hominins – human ancestors – as far back as 1.7 million years ago.</p>
<h2>Finding the earliest cancer</h2>
<p>Our research involved two overlapping teams of multi-disciplinary scientists. Some specialised in human evolutionary anatomy, others in ancient and modern diseases. Others are experts in the latest medical and research-based non-invasive imaging techniques. </p>
<p>The aim was to marry the work of scientists who focus extensively on the morphology of dry or fossil bone – including bone diseases – with medical specialists who are practised in diagnosing disease in living humans.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/65TjgYFB9uw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Wits University video of the discovery of the earliest hominin cancer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These discoveries were made possible by state-of-the-art 3D imaging techniques. We used <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/microct/">Micro-Focus X-ray Computed Tomography</a>, or Micro-CT imaging. This is similar to the more familiar medical CAT scans, but allows a much greater degree of resolution.</p>
<p>Another technique, <a href="http://www.esrf.eu/files/live/sites/www/files/events/Seminars/2015,01,19%20ESRF%20palaeontology%20lecture-compressed.pdf">Phase Contrast X-ray Synchrotron Microtomography</a>, was also used. It is widely accepted globally as the global standard for 3D imaging of fossils without causing them any damage.</p>
<h2>Fossil evidence</h2>
<p>Finding any cancer or neoplastic disease in the archaeological record has always been a contentious issue. </p>
<p>In 2010 two scientists published <a href="http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/scientists-suggest-that-cancer-is-man-made">a study</a> based on their analysis of Egyptian mummies. They found extremely low incidences of benign tumours and an almost complete absence of malignancy. They concluded: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our findings prove that they are wrong. We made two relevant fossil discoveries which falsify their claims. One was an example of a benign tumour and the other a malignant cancer.</p>
<p>The benign tumour comes from the site of Malapa, and is dated to 1.98 million years ago. This is a case of <a href="http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00507">osteoid osteoma</a>, a benign bone tumour. It was found in a vertebra of the <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2010/06/01/fossil-named-karabo">well-known</a> <em>Australopithecus sediba</em> child <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2010/06/01/fossil-named-karabo">Karabo</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136308/original/image-20160901-1015-nund08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136308/original/image-20160901-1015-nund08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136308/original/image-20160901-1015-nund08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136308/original/image-20160901-1015-nund08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136308/original/image-20160901-1015-nund08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1191&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136308/original/image-20160901-1015-nund08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1191&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136308/original/image-20160901-1015-nund08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1191&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vertebra U.W. 88-37. Sixth thoracic vertebra of juvenile <em>Australopithecus sediba</em>. The tumour’s segmented boundaries are rendered solid pink.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Tafforeau (ESRF)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The tumour would probably have caused pain and discomfort, but would not have been directly responsible for Karabo’s death. However, the disease may have limited his ability to climb and move, and may have been implicated in the manner of his death. Results <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep15120">published in 2015</a> suggest Karabo was the victim of a fall from a height into a natural death trap. </p>
<p>The second fossil find is perhaps the more important. A foot bone from Swartkrans cave provides the <a href="http://sajs.co.za/earliest-hominin-cancer-1-7-million-year-old-osteosarcoma-swartkrans-cave-south-africa/edward-j-odes-patrick-s-randolph-quinney-maryna-steyn-zach-throckmorton-jacqueline-s-smilg-bernhard">earliest evidence</a> for a malignant human cancer, and is dated to roughly 1.7 million years ago. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132800/original/image-20160802-17185-1nrw745.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132800/original/image-20160802-17185-1nrw745.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132800/original/image-20160802-17185-1nrw745.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132800/original/image-20160802-17185-1nrw745.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132800/original/image-20160802-17185-1nrw745.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132800/original/image-20160802-17185-1nrw745.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132800/original/image-20160802-17185-1nrw745.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The earliest hominin cancer. Volume rendered Micro-CT image of the external morphology, showing the extent of expansion of osteosarcoma beyond the surface of the bone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patrick Randolph-Quinney (University of Central Lancashire/University of the Witwatersrand)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was seen as a large mass of bone growing on the surface of a fifth metatarsal, which is found in the body of the foot, behind the little toe. The external bone mass might have suggested a benign tumour. But when we looked inside the bone, using advanced Micro-CT imaging, we saw that the medullary cavity – the hollow part of a normal tubular bone – was completely obliterated by new bone growth. </p>
<p>This indicated an aggressive bone-forming condition: a cancer. </p>
<p>We used advanced imaging techniques that helped us to visualize the pathological lesion better. We were able to identify new bone growth inside the medullary cavity, which expanded through to the surface. We then compared the mass and the cross-section with modern clinical cases and concluded it was an osteosarcoma, a primary bone malignancy. </p>
<p>This means that the cancer actually started deep in the bone tissue itself, before spreading to the surface. Such cancers are invariably life-threatening if untreated and would lead to death if allowed to divide and spread. The cancer’s presence might also have affected the hominin’s ability to walk and would have been painful when in contact with the ground.</p>
<h2>Understanding palaeo-oncology</h2>
<p>So, is our discovery the earliest evidence for neoplastic disease? In the human lineage, yes. However, much older tumours and cancers have been observed in the fossil record of non-hominins. Cancer is not simply a disease affecting humans. And it is ancient.</p>
<p>The earliest unequivocal case of benign neoplasia is an <a href="http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/boneosteoma.html">osteoma</a> from 300 million years ago. It was found in a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.20610/pdf">fossil fish</a> from North America. Later cases include benign tumours in Jurassic dinosaurs, Cretaceous hadrosaurs, and later European mammoths. The earliest true cancer comes from a <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=y9o_SgXM2U4C&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=theropod+dinosaur+from+the+late+Jurassic+of+Utah+cancer&source=bl&ots=DXGKRcy-s6&sig=2ZQi25XOxa1bPQitec-Bpee2-r8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKiPGHoILPAhVoD8AKHWgoDMYQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=theropod%20dinosaur%20from%20the%20late%20Jurassic%20of%20Utah%20cancer&f=false">theropod dinosaur</a> from the late Jurassic of Utah in the US. </p>
<p>Today various cancers and tumours are prevalent in animals. A parasitic cancer called Devil Facial Tumour Disease has been implicated in the collapse of wild Tasmanian Devil populations. Tasmanian Devils are carnivorous marsupials.</p>
<p>In the human world, it is true that rates of tumours and cancers are <a href="http://www.healthdata.org/news-release/new-cancer-cases-rise-globally-death-rates-are-declining-many-countries">accelerating</a> because environmental toxins and other tumour forming factors in the modern (particularly Western) lifestyle. But such diseases were present in the past, even without the influence of modern lifestyles. </p>
<p>However, by any modern standard these primary bone tumours are very rare. Finding them in two of our fossil ancestors is highly unusual. The next step is to ask what mechanisms may be behind the presence of tumours and cancers deep in prehistory and how that may have an impact on the evolution of cancer in the modern world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edward John Odes receives funding from the NRF of South Africa, The DST/NRF South African Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, and the University of the Witwatersrand </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Randolph-Quinney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Cancer is not the modern disease many believe it to be. New fossil evidence from two South African caves suggests that its origins lie deep in prehistory.
Patrick Randolph-Quinney, Senior Lecturer in Biological and Forensic Anthropology, University of Central Lancashire
Edward John Odes, PhD Candidate in Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/64924
2016-09-08T09:26:53Z
2016-09-08T09:26:53Z
The Mary Rose artefact scans are a new way of analysing history
<p>As a sports and exercise biomechanist who has traditionally worked with professional athletes, it came as something of a surprise when the Mary Rose Trust contacted me back in 2011. The charity asked me to analyse the skeletons of men who drowned aboard the Mary Rose battleship in 1545. But these were no ordinary men, they were professional archers, and so could also be considered elite, or even ultra athletes, trained to go into battle for the then King of England, Henry VIII.</p>
<p>The research involved scanning the bones to produce very precise, virtual replicas. We analysed these replicas, minimising the need to handle bones directly. Our aim was to determine if, by precisely measuring the bones, we could identify which of the remains were the archers. This work – which was later used to put together a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22907996">reconstruction of one archer’s face</a> from a skull scan – was the very beginning of research which we now hope will unlock the past for scientists and historians all over the world.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1GafuXkLFaY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/mary-rose-tudor-painting-and-tidal-analysis-offer-clues-as-to-why-it-sank-64987">Mary Rose lay at the bottom of the Solent</a>, the strait that separates the south of England from the Isle of Wight, for nearly 450 years after its sinking – until 1982. Since then some 19,000 artefacts have been recovered from the site of the wreck, ranging from <a href="http://www.maryrose.org/discover-our-collection/story-of-the-ship/image-galleries/nggallery/image/316">cannons</a> to <a href="http://www.maryrose.org/discover-our-collection/story-of-the-ship/image-galleries/nggallery/image/277">fiddles</a>, <a href="http://www.maryrose.org/discover-our-collection/story-of-the-ship/image-galleries/nggallery/image/earscoop/">earscoops</a> to <a href="http://www.maryrose.org/discover-our-collection/story-of-the-ship/image-galleries/nggallery/image/118">hilted swords</a>. Due to the conditions in the Solent, the ship very quickly became covered in silt and mud after it sank. This meant that it, the artefacts and the skeletons of the crew were incredibly well preserved. In fact, the state of preservation was such that some of the longbows recovered from the ship were still usable.</p>
<p>Yet like any item with historical merit, these are still incredibly delicate objects, which need to be handled carefully so as not to damage or contaminate them. They are in much demand for examination, meaning that researchers may struggle to get time with the items in person. However, by creating a <a href="http://www.virtualtudors.org/">virtual 3D database of detailed scans</a> that can be accessed by researchers the world over, we hope that more experts with different areas of knowledge can access the items, and contribute to the analysis of them.</p>
<h2>History in 3D</h2>
<p>Using 3D scanning and imaging to produce models is not, it has to be said, a new concept. Museums have been using this innovative way of displaying artefacts for some time. Others, like Toby Jones, curator of the <a href="http://newportship.org/">Newport medieval ship project</a>, have even used imaging as a tool to accurately reconstruct the dimensions of and preserve whole ships digitally, piece by piece. We are taking this one step further with our Mary Rose work, and making not only a full database of the artefacts, complete with 3D images, but a resource for the scientific community to access and study. Our scans of items and skeletal remains from the ship are being produced to challenge the research community and, in particular, see if a full analysis of the bones – the likes of which has only been achieved with a first hand examination in the past – can be achieved from a digitised archive.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iFDFdNDJlMk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>When we examined the archers’ skulls, a laser scanner was used to create exact three-dimensional virtual replicas. For this latest work, we decided to do things differently, instead opting for photogrammetry as the means of digitising the artefacts. Photogrammetry is the use of photography to map and survey objects, here resulting in <a href="http://www.virtualtudors.org/Mary-Rose-3D">3D digital models of each artefact</a> recovered from the Mary Rose. We chose photogrammetry over the previously used laser scanning as this time we were not interested in measuring dimensions of the skulls, but in the visual data. Photogrammetry is ideal for this as the photo-realistic images can be manipulated by the user.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"761145066245292032"}"></div></p>
<p>The project’s PhD student Sarah Aldridge took the task on, carefully photographing every skull around 120 times each, using a 39 megapixel camera. Items with higher aspect ratios, or different shapes, required many more photos: around 400 images of the heavily detailed carved wood panel were taken. The photos were then edited and combined using software to create <a href="http://www.virtualtudors.org/Mary-Rose-3D">detailed representations of them</a>.</p>
<h2>Digital vs. real life</h2>
<p>As our work progressed, we asked a group of archaeologists to analyse the scans of real skulls, and virtual skulls made using photogrammetry. Though this study is not yet complete, our initial results are very promising and showed which traits were recognised well and not so well using the photo technique. </p>
<p>Some skull properties, for example, are typically analysed to determine gender or ancestry, and are more tactile, traditionally requiring a close examination. The upper edge of the eye socket is one such feature: the sharper the edge, the more feminine it is considered. By conducting the study in a controlled environment, we were also able to optimise the method for viewing the digitised image. This was achieved by ensuring that the laptops used were correctly calibrated and of sufficiently high resolution to faithfully reproduce the nuanced 3D models. </p>
<p>At present only those working in the field of bone science – osteologists, forensic anthropologists, bone biologists and the like – have access to the research sections that we have published on our website, however, we hope that more will be open to the public in the future. Going forward, the work that we have done on the Mary Rose artefacts could open up a whole new method of scientific analysis, allowing researchers to examine any artefact from anywhere in the world at any time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64924/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Historical insight is not the only thing that has been raised with the Mary Rose.
Nicholas Owen, Sport and Exercise Biomechanist, Swansea University
Sarah Aldridge, PhD researcher, Swansea University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/64382
2016-08-26T11:18:20Z
2016-08-26T11:18:20Z
Virtual reality robots could help teleport juries to crime scenes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135515/original/image-20160825-6630-1afnzf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Juries are seldom allowed to visit crime scenes. There are exceptions, usually in difficult, high-profile murder cases such as the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/13/us/simpson-jury-is-taken-on-a-tour-of-the-crime-scene.html?pagewanted=all">O.J Simpson trial</a> in 1995 in the US and the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1323186.stm">Jill Dando murder trial</a> in 2001 in the UK. But asking jurors to become fact finders in this way comes with myriad problems, from possible biases to the logistical and security challenges of taking them to the crime scene.</p>
<p>A site visit by the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-45197/Dando-jurors-visit-crime-scene.html">Dando jury</a> needed a convoy of five vehicles to transport the jurors, lawyers, judge and their police escorts to the scene, passing through police barricades surrounded by neighbours, journalists and other spectators. It became a media spectacle. But rapidly progressing technology in imaging, robotics and artificial intelligence may be able to avoid these issues by virtually teleporting judges and jurors to crime scenes without even leaving the courtroom.</p>
<p>Such visits can help juries to assess the prosecution and defence cases. For example, in the murder trial of <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1049990/phil-spector-jurors-visit-crime-scene">music producer Phil Spector</a> in 2007, the defence lawyers claimed a large fountain at the scene caused a witness to mishear Spector admit to the crime. By visiting the scene, the jury were able to judge how likely this was, as well as gaining a better understanding of how the sequence of events may have unfolded.</p>
<p>But when a jury visits a crime scene, it may not be in the same state as when the crime originally occurred. During the <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-02-15/news/9502150182_1_simpson-home-defense-attorney-carl-douglas-nicole-brown-simpson">Simpson trial</a>, for example, there were serious complaints regarding the scene being staged and items rearranged. And the longer the time after the crime has taken place, the greater the chance that things will have changed.</p>
<p>Courts have traditionally relied on forensic science units to produce visual evidence in court as an alternative to crime scene visits. Crime scene investigators (CSIs) <a href="http://bit.ly/2bkTcXg">gather and use evidence</a> to recreate the precise sequence of events that occurred during the course of a crime. Part of this reconstruction process is photography and sketching, with the latter still largely done by hand. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135517/original/image-20160825-6595-1e80vyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135517/original/image-20160825-6595-1e80vyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135517/original/image-20160825-6595-1e80vyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135517/original/image-20160825-6595-1e80vyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135517/original/image-20160825-6595-1e80vyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135517/original/image-20160825-6595-1e80vyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135517/original/image-20160825-6595-1e80vyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Virtual duty.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Photos give a limited picture of the crime scene, restricted by the photographer’s field of view and subject to their interpretation of the scene and the importance they place on different pieces of evidence. Video can capture more of the scene but is still limited in its field of view.</p>
<p>Sketches lay out the scene in a way that neither photographs nor videos can. They provide a general overview of the scene and the precise and relative location of evidence. But they also give an inherently less realistic representation of the crime scene, determined even more by the artist’s interpretation. Similarly, photos and videos can be turned into 3D computer animations but again are subjective, and <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1394503">can even be tailored</a> to support the case of whichever side is presenting them.</p>
<h2>Immersive evidence</h2>
<p>However, new technology is now emerging that could enable CSIs to capture and relay a much more immersive and representative picture of crime scenes, using 3D imaging, panoramic videography, robotics and virtual reality. For example, <a href="https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/archaeology/projects/digital-forensic-archaeology-dig-for-arch/">researchers at Staffordshire University</a>, led by Caroline Sturdy Colls, used green screens, video game software and the latest virtual reality headsets (such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive) to reproduce virtual crime scenes digitally.</p>
<p>Jurors could potentially take a walk around the 3D worlds rendered using the system, and examine vital details of the scene. Unlike an edited video created to sway the jury, this form of evidence would be a simple matter of documenting a scene. This, of course, relies on those gathering the data to objectively preserving the crime scene without staging or tampering.</p>
<p>One issue with 3D recreations and computer-generated virtual reality simulations is that they require expensive headsets, and top specification computers to work. The first generation of VR systems such as the HTC Vive (£759), PlayStation VR (£349.99) and Oculus Rift (£549) all come with hefty price tags and none of them work without an additional VR-ready computer or console.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135508/original/image-20160825-6595-mv4ub4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135508/original/image-20160825-6595-mv4ub4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135508/original/image-20160825-6595-mv4ub4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135508/original/image-20160825-6595-mv4ub4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135508/original/image-20160825-6595-mv4ub4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135508/original/image-20160825-6595-mv4ub4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135508/original/image-20160825-6595-mv4ub4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Here to inspect your crime scene.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Durham University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To overcome this issue, my colleagues and I at Durham University are developing a robot system inspired by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover that could capture immersive video footage of crime scenes. This MABMAT takes 360° videos and photographs that can be played on any computer or smartphone with an appropriate app. With a basic adaptor headset such as the £10 <a href="https://vr.google.com/cardboard/">Google cardboard</a>, it can recreate a similar VR experience as above but at a fraction of the cost. It requires no rendering of 3D graphics, no powerful computers and captures the most accurate snapshot of the crime scene from every angle. Users can turn their heads, look up and down, or zoom in and out.</p>
<p>As well as helping juries in the courtroom, the system could allow investigators to revisit crime scenes as they were at the time of the initial forensic examination. Information could be captured in three ways. A CSI could set a predefined path for the rover to take, recording high definition video images in 360° as it goes. Or it could be controlled via a Bluetooth remote or a smartphone or tablet. Alternatively, the rover could use ultrasonic, motion and infrared sensors to navigate around a scene and take photos and video by itself.</p>
<p>The entire setup totals just £299, with costs set to go down even further in the future, due to affordable open-source robotics kits built around cheap computer systems such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino. Another development could be the use of <a href="https://get.google.com/tango/">Google’s Tango project</a>, which can render 3D images of scenes and terrain in real-time, potentially replacing crime-scene sketching. This would create an immersive experience with tracked motion, highlighting the precise distance between objects and relative position of the evidence at the scene.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64382/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mehzeb Chowdhury does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Using a robotic video camera to digitally recreate a crime scene could give juries greater insight without the logistical nightmare and potential bias of a physical visit.
Mehzeb Chowdhury, PhD Researcher in Forensic Science & Criminal Investigations, Durham University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.