Editing Tomography (section)

===Synchrotron X-ray tomographic microscopy===
A new technique called synchrotron X-ray tomographic microscopy ([[SRXTM]]) allows for detailed three-dimensional scanning of fossils.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Donoghue |first1=PC |last2=Bengtson |first2=S |last3=Dong |first3=XP |last4=Gostling |first4=NJ |last5=Huldtgren |first5=T |last6=Cunningham |first6=JA |last7=Yin |first7=C |last8=Yue |first8=Z |last9=Peng |first9=F |last10=Stampanoni |first10=M |title=Synchrotron X-ray tomographic microscopy of fossil embryos. |journal=Nature |date=10 August 2006 |volume=442 |issue=7103 |pages=680–3 |doi=10.1038/nature04890 |pmid=16900198|bibcode = 2006Natur.442..680D | s2cid=4411929}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110589771-004|doi=10.1515/9783110589771-004|chapter=Contributors to Volume 21|title=Metals, Microbes, and Minerals - the Biogeochemical Side of Life|year=2021|pages=xix-xxii|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=9783110588903|s2cid=243434346}}</ref>

The construction of third-generation [[Synchrotron light source|synchrotron sources]] combined with the tremendous improvement of detector technology, data storage and processing capabilities since the 1990s has led to a boost of high-end synchrotron tomography in materials research with a wide range of different applications, e.g. the visualization and quantitative analysis of differently absorbing phases, microporosities, cracks, precipitates or grains in a specimen.
Synchrotron radiation is created by accelerating free particles in high vacuum. By the laws of electrodynamics this acceleration leads to the emission of electromagnetic radiation (Jackson, 1975). Linear particle acceleration is one possibility, but apart from the very high electric fields one would need it is more practical to hold the charged particles on a
closed trajectory in order to obtain a source of continuous radiation. Magnetic fields are used to force the particles onto the desired orbit and prevent them from flying in a straight line. The radial acceleration associated with the change of direction then generates radiation.<ref>Banhart, John, ed. Advanced Tomographic Methods in Materials Research and Engineering. Monographs on the Physics and Chemistry of Materials. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.</ref>