The first ever brightest light in the whole Universe has been created by scientists. These X-rays are brighter than the light of a million suns. These rays when bombarded on a fossil of million-year-old plant, revealed an amazing vision of the biochemical structure of the fossil.
A team of palaeontologists, geochemists and physicists studied the biochemical structure of preserved fossil leaves from the "Green River Formation" of Ecoene age of western United States. The study was conducted by exposing the fossil to X-rays which were produced by synchrotron particle accelerators.
These x-rays were created by mixing the unique properties of two synchrotron facilities by researchers from University of Manchester and Diamond Light Source of Britain. The rays produced a clear image showing the location of the periodic table elements in the living as well as fossil leaves.
The study revealed that elements copper, zinc and nickel are distributed in fossil leaves in almost similar manner as in a living leaf. Every element was found concentrated in separate biological parts like veins and edge of leaves.
These trace elements and sulphur were found adhered to other elements in an identical way to that of living leaves and plant matter found in soil.
The data of the study shows that the biochemical structure of the fossil leaves represents the biochemical structure of a living leaf and is not completely originated from the environment as was earlier considered.
