Researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have found a way to produce 3-D images of microfossils embedded in rocks. This new technique is not destructive and they were able to spot fossils up to 850 million years old. The scientists are now waiting for samples of Mars rocks to look if they can find microscopic fossils inside them for signs of life. But this will take some years before they can use these techniques on Mars rocks. In the mean time, read more...
But will they discover life on Mars? UCLA paleobiologist William Schopf answers.
If a future space mission to Mars brings rocks back to Earth, Schopf said the techniques he has used, called confocal laser scanning microscopy [Credit: Wikipedia] and Raman spectroscopy, could enable scientists to look at microscopic fossils inside the rocks to search for signs of life, such as organic cell walls. These techniques would not destroy the rocks.
And it seems that he really enjoyed discovering these old microfossils.
"We can look underneath the fossil, see it from the top, from the sides, and rotate it around; we couldn't do that with any other technique, but now we can, because of confocal laser scanning microscopy. In addition, even though the fossils are exceedingly tiny, the images are sharp and crisp. So, we can see how the fossils have degraded over millions of years, and learn what are real biological features and what has been changed over time."
As an example, the picture below shows several views of a 650-million-year-old fossil from Kazakhstan. "Top: optical image of fossil cyanobacterium. Middle: confocal optical image of the same fossil. Bottom L: close-up of section of confocal optical image. Bottom R: Raman chemical image of same boxed region" (Credit: William Schopf/UCLA). And for your viewing pleasure, here is a link to a larger version.
This research work has been published by the journal Astrobiology in its January 2006 issue which is not yet currently available online.
And as there are not many sources of information available from UCLA about this new technique, we'll have to wait for several years to see if it can really be applied to Mars samples.
Sources: University of California at Los Angeles news release, via EurekAlert!, January 31, 2006; and various web sites
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