by Jim Barlow
At first glance scientists struggling with the
images on a computer screen at the UIUC Beckman
Institute for Advanced Science and Technology this
spring could have been mistaken for astrophysicists
speculating about a newly discovered neutron star.
Their questions were basic: "What are we looking at?" "Has this ever been seen before?" Answers such as "I don't really know" and "Not according to the literature" deepened the mystery. A white spot on one image heightened their speculation.
The scientists were looking at an early stage of life--not at x-ray pulses emitted by a dying star. The mystery image was a 5-day-old embryo inside a chicken egg. It was being viewed for the first time by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at UIUC. The white spot, they speculated, perhaps was the chick's heart.
The excitement of scientific discovery was clear as Clint Potter and Carl Gregory, both researchers at the Beckman Institute and NCSA, met with Jo Ann Eurell, professor of veterinary biosciences in the UIUC College of Veterinary Medicine, to view the chicken egg through the world's first NWebScope server at the UIUC's Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Laboratory (BMRL). The Internet server allows computer users with browsers to link up from anywhere to an MRI machine and do experiments.
The researchers prepared for Project May Day, a 21- day real-time experiment that began April 15 to deliver the miracle of embryonic development via the World Wide Web to primary and secondary schools. Students at Champaign's Countryside School and Central High School, Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club, Urbana's Wiley Elementary School, University Primary School, Urbana's Middle and High Schools, and Teutopolis High School logged onto their computers at specific times each day.
"We hoped to get the students excited about the process of discovery," said project coordinator Potter, who conceived of Project May Day to demonstrate the potential of remote instrument control through standard Web browsers. "The project evolved during the entire month of April as we learned from the students and as we refined our own technique."
The ambitious project, using ChickScope, involved several researchers as well as Project SEARCH, a UI undergraduate science outreach program; NCSA's Resource for Science Education Program; BMRL; UIUC Beckman Institute; UIUC College of Veterinary Medicine; Champaign County Extension Unit School Enrichment Program; and Illinois Natural History Survey. Chip Bruce, professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education, is directing an evaluation of Project May Day.
The students' daily involvement actually helped the scientists in their MRI documentation of the step-by- step development of a chick--considered a good model for overall species development. A chick grows quickly, hatching in 21 days. The chicks in the experiment hatched on May 1, or May Day--hence the project's name.
"Currently there are no reports in the scientific literature of MRI of a developing chick," Eurell said. "We hoped to visualize new information about this process with this study. As MRI technology continues to develop, other species may be followed using this noninvasive procedure."
Previous documentation of chicken development involved destroying eggs at various stages. With MRI, eggs are undisturbed; researchers can capture images at any time. The eggs were kept in an incubator when they were not under observation.
MRI is a noninvasive diagnostic technique that has been used extensively in medicine to view internal parts of the human body. Unlike x-rays or surgery, the high-quality images produced by MRI carry no known risk to patients. The technology in recent years has been extended to a variety of disciplines, from agronomy to food. It allows researchers to study internal dynamics without disturbing processes.
"Children were able to observe the wonder of a chick's development inside the egg, without harming or disturbing it, and college students and research scientists learned more about embryonic development," said BMRL Director Paul C. Lauterbur, a pioneer of MRI technology. "Each profited at the appropriate level by simple observations and by making and testing hypotheses as they controlled the imaging process, using the same developing egg but bringing different levels of knowledge and insights to their experiments. Our laboratory learned how to improve our software and interfaces and our training methods, so as to carry out future research projects more effectively."
Potter and Gregory, who designed the BMRL's server that connected the MRI to the World Wide Web, set up the control parameters that allowed other researchers and students to view the egg and manipulate their observations effectively. Among the earliest challenges was simply realizing what they were seeing.
"We saw changes not seen before in the yolk and tissues," Eurell said. "We went into this with a great deal of curiosity about what we would see." Eurell's team met with teachers from the participating schools to train them on using their browser software to view the egg and manipulate the MRI images. Each day the students viewed a prepared image to guide them into that day's session. Then they were able to ask their own questions and seek answers. They documented what they did in special online WebNotebooks, called Chicken Scratchings, that were designed by Barbara Fossum, director of the Beckman Institute's Visualization Lab.
As with any scientific experiment, there were risks. "This is truly a Web event," Eurell said. As for the newborn chicks, they were adopted by Randy Butler and Jeff Terstriep of NCSA.
Article courtesy UIUC News Bureau.
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