CT scanner

Specimens that are too large for fluid preservation are also unlikely to fit into a CT scanner, but researchers were reluctant to leave these out.

Fossils from this era, called the Middle Jurassic, are extremely rare, says Dr Liz Martin-Silverstone at the University of Bristol who used a CT scanner to make a 3D digital model of the fossil.

“We measured the whole vertebral skeleton of a living great white shark with a CT scanner and compared that to the previous reconstruction of the Megalodon vertebral column,” Sternes said.

There’s a defibrillator and a portable ultrasound on the I.S.S., but no CT scanner or M.R.I. machine.

Within two years of Americore acquiring the facility, the company capped paychecks at $500 and the emergency room’s CT scanner broke.