No doubt that most people recognise how scientific research benefits from the different type of experiments conducted in laboratories. Whether your lab is based in Australia or the UK, chemical analysis once again reiterates the significant role it has in providing valuable evidence from different discoveries.
According to ScienceAlert, researchers have used chemical analysis on fossils that are believed to be 3.4 billion years old. Examining microfossils found in Strelley Pools in the Western Australian desert, the team found ancient bacteria in them and identified what could possibly be one of the “world’s oldest evidence of life”.
You will know that a project of this type would require a meticulous study of the fossils to learn as much as possible about them. To achieve exactly that, the researchers used different techniques that included the use of a focused ion beam, Raman microspectroscopy, synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy and scanning and transmission electron microscopy.
The microfossils in Strelley were even cross-referenced with those found in Gunflint, Canada, which are believed to be 1.9 billion years old. What is interesting is that the researchers found that the Strelley microfossils were in a better state of preservation, despite how old they were. They determined that it was due to the impermeable rocks in which they were embedded in.
Julien Alleon, who worked on the research and is a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, commented: “We demonstrate that the elemental and molecular characteristics of these 3.4 Ga microfossils are consistent with biological remains, slightly degraded by fossilisation processes.
“This effectively supports the biological origin of the Strelley Pool microfossils. And yet we are still able to see signs of their original chemistry. This is a step forward to confirming that these are indeed the oldest fossils yet discovered.”
Just like fossils can be studied to discover how they have not disintegrated over time, analysists can use their techniques in different areas that could prove valuable to both scientific and even historical research. According to the Daily Mail, tests have been carried out on prehistoric corpses and found that ancient Egyptians were mummifying 1,500 years earlier than thought.
Analysists examined a mummy, which had not received conservation treatments, and found that it had not been mummified through natural causes. Instead, results from the body suggested that it had been mummified, which was possible through heated conifer resin, plant oil, plant gum, sugar mix and aromatic plant extract.
The mummy has been at the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy, since 1901 and is dated between 3700BC and 3500BC.
Dr Stephen Buckley, who is a research fellow at the University of York, said that with similar embalming recipes found in their previous studies, the new research is “both the first evidence for the wider geographical use of these balms and the first ever unequivocal scientific evidence for the use of embalming on an intact, prehistoric Egyptian mummy”.
You will know that in both cases that chemical analysis has provided substantial new evidence to support different theories and even new areas for further research to be made.
