A new generation of X-ray machines will examine more details

It turns out that a set of relatively simple silicon filters could dramatically improve the quality of X-ray pictures taken in hospitals or airports at customs points. This technology provides a more detailed picture of a broken bone, it can also help distinguish between airport security scanners plastic bomb from a truly secure items.

The principle of X-ray machines based on the fact that some parts of the body pass the radiation, while others absorb it. Provide maximum absorption of the white subjects, the minimum - black. However, many important details in the picture is lost due to the fact that their absorption capacity are at an intermediate elevation.

Now, however, a number of scientists from the Paul Scherrer Institute, located in the Swiss town Filligen, headed by Professor Franz Pfeiffer (Franz Pfeiffer) has teamed up with colleagues from the Danish Niels Bohr Institute (Copenhagen ) to create images of a much more high-definition with minimal increase in cost.

Used to operate the technology, known as dark field microscopy, typically used by biologists for the clearest images of cells using a microscope is not very strong.

Microscopy dark field allows you to enhance the contrast only in the case of scattered visible light. Professor Pfeiffer and his colleagues have shown that the same principle applies to X-rays. It uses a set of silicon filters the rays pass freely through the body itself is ignored during processing, and are taken into account only those who pass by going to the narrow beams.

Combinations of different filters yield four different images, then analyzed by an automated system. The only drawback of technology - the need to do four shots in a row, that means a large dose of radiation.