A Look Inside A Mummy

Reported July, 2007

PITTSBURGH (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- It’s a high-tech medical tool doctors use to find tumors, or to map out surgery. A computed tomography scan -- or a CT scan -- gives doctors a precise look at what's going on inside, without surgery. But the technology is also allowing radiologists to unveil some amazing secrets from the past.

Science knew little about the story behind a two thousand year old mummy -- until now. “We had a number of questions because a doctor had x-rayed it in 1986 and had thought he was a bit older than he has actually proven to be,” says Sandra Olsen, Ph.D. and Anthropologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Archeologists unearthed the three-foot tall egyptian child mummy in 1912, but could offer very few other facts about the boy's past. Two decades ago, researchers thought the child might have had an enlarged head -- and possibly died from a genetic disease -- but removing any wrapping to investigate would damage the priceless artifact.

“What’s so exciting about CT scanning -- the reason why we turned to that medical technique -- is that it is non-invasive and non-destructive,” Olsen explains.

The CT scan takes hundreds of images and uses a computer to join them together in three dimensional views. Bone and tissue are seen with more clarity than a traditional x-ray. Anthropologists were able to better determine the age of the mummy after they found a missing tooth at the base of the child’s skull. Had it fallen out naturally, this child would have been closer to eight when he died.

“In the end we found out he was only about three years old and his head is probably normal in relationship to his body,” Olsen says.

Researchers are hoping to have an artist build a cast of his face, like investigators do in forensics, to see what the mummy looked like as a living little boy.

“The tools that we have at our disposal are fortunately ideally suited to uncovering mysteries that are in archeology-in addition to anybody with an ailment who comes our way,” says Jeffrey Towers, M.D., Chief of Muscular-Skeletal Radiation at the University of Pittsburgh.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Ellen James, Public Relations Manager
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412) 622-3361
jamese@carnegiemnh.org

For more information on medical imaging, contact:

Ben Stein
American Institute of Physics
for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine
301-209-3088
bstein@aip.org

Skaters defy the law of gravity! How do they do it? We’ll break it down.

Pizza dough that can actually improve your health? It’s all in how you cook it.

Bees are dying off in record numbers. It’s a crisis that could impact us all at the grocery store.

It’s pest control with no chemicals needed! We’ll show you how some farmers are using bugs to zap bugs.

No engine, no transmission and no gas needed! We’ll show you what keeps this new-age bus moving.

X-ray vision is no longer just for the movies. New technology is ringing superpowers to real life.

Modern medicine is unwrapping ancient mysteries. Now scientists can find out what’s inside a mummy’s tomb.

Meet the man who helped to invent your computer, the keyboard and your printer … what’s he up to next?

Do your arms ache? Hands hurt? Is it Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or something else?

Remembering your past may go hand-in-hand with envisioning your future … we’ll show you how one affects the other.

? They may look alike, but how can one be healthy and the other sick?.

Look up in the sky! You may just see a double star … or is it? A spectacular phenomenon happens this month. We’ll show you what to look for.