Scientists develop 3-D scanner for insects
May 22, 2018, Technische Universitat Darmstadt
A scanner developed jointly at TU Darmstadt and Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences enables automated digital archiving of preserved insects—in high-resolution and in 3-D. The scientists have published this new and unique development in the journal "ZooKeys."
A tremendous decrease of insects has been observed in the last decades: Some native protected areas have lost 75 percent of their insect biomass. The documentation and understanding of the local and global diversity of insects is thus a particularly urgent concern. For this purpose, scientists from Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and TU Darmstadt have jointly developed a novel scanner that digitises preserved insects in high resolution and to scale. The scanner should make a valuable contribution to the digital documentation of biodiversity. Because even preserved insects in collections are in danger: They are threatened to be gradually lost due to natural decay and pests such as the museum beetle. Over one million of different species are archived in natural history museums – a substantial number. Digitisation makes it possible for them to be not just preserved for the future, but also to be accessed online worldwide.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-05-scientists-d-scanner-insects.html#jCp
