Exploring the potential of neutron imaging for life sciences on IMAT

Abstract

Neutron imaging has been employed in life sciences in recent years and has proven to be a viable technique for studying internal features without compromising integrity and internal structure of samples in addition to being complementary to other methods such as X-ray or magnetic resonance imaging. Within the last decade, a neutron imaging beamline, IMAT, was designed and built at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, UK, to meet the increasing demand for neutron imaging applications in various fields spanning from materials engineering to biology. In this paper, we present the first neutron imaging experiments on different biological samples during the scientific commissioning of the IMAT beamline mainly intended to explore the beamline's capabilities and its potential as a noninvasive investigation tool in fields such as agriculture (soil-plants systems), palaeontology and dentistry. Lay Description: Neutrons form a highly penetrating radiation passing through matter without damaging or structurally modifying it, a property that makes them the ideal tool for many kinds of complementary material investigations. Moreover, the strong interaction of neutrons with hydrogen and their ability to distinguish between hydrogen and deuterium with no radiation damage make neutrons a good probe for imaging biological specimens. The recent technological developments of sources and detectors improved the capabilities of neutron imaging instruments and also have facilitated the use of neutron imaging on a much wider scale than before. Neutron imaging is proving its advantages as being complementary to other known methods of investigation such as X-ray imaging or magnetic resonance imaging and it is no surprise that it is not only employed in engineering or archaeology, but also in life sciences. This definitely opens new perspectives for a more interdisciplinary approach in contemporary science. Within the last decade a neutron imaging beamline, IMAT, was designed and built at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, UK, to meet the increasing demands of researchers from different fields, spanning from materials engineering to biology. The results presented here, acquired from first measurements on different biological samples during the scientific commissioning of IMAT beamline show the instrument capability and its suitability to palaeontology, agriculture (soil–plants systems) or dentistry applications.

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