Seminar with Dr. Vincent Fernandez

X-ray computed tomography is a widely used technique, notably in the medical field with thousands of CT scans done daily in hospitals. But the capacity to inspect the content of an object without having to physically cutting it open is also very appealing for many other fields. Natural and cultural heritage institutes rely more and more on this techniques, several facilities being equipped with laboratory CT system offering a new approach to study their collections. Synchrotron facilities are large particle accelerator producing very bright X-ray beam. Additionally to the flux, the properties of synchrotron X-ray beam facilitate the use of other techniques, notably phase contrast imaging. The latter allows to considerably enhance the contrast in the resulting data which is particularly interesting in palaeontology for example where the density of the fossilised bones can be very similar to that of the surrounding sediment. Synchrotron light is now regularly used and unveiled a wide rage of discoveries, from 200 million years old dinosaur embryos to Egyptian animal mummies.