Egyptian Child Mummy

Radiologists at Stanford University used a high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scanner to generate 60,000 2D scans of an unopened, intact mummy.

Computers running the latest 3D computer graphics at Silicon Graphics used the scans to create a 3D model of the 2000-year-old mummy and its interior. As the body showed no telltale signs of trauma or long-term disease, researchers believe the child died unexpectedly.

This image won first place in the photography category of the 2006 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge sponsored jointly by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science.

--LiveScience Staff

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Credit: Robert Cheng, Paul Brown, and Rebecca Farig, Stanford University; and Christof Reinhart, Volume Graphics