Adam Summers wants to make a database of skeletons from all fish – a huge challenge.
Summers is a professor of comparative biomechanics at the University of Washington. Over the past few month he started scanning fish skeletons with a CT scanner. The resulting 3D models are uploaded to a open source database – the Open Science Framework.
Summers also uses 3D printers to make physical models of these skeletons. In an interview with Wired Summers speaks about the advantages:
“By taking these little fish and printing them out, I’m able to understand how they work.”
A few of the files from the detailed scans are over 30 GB but the scientist also releases smaller versions with just above 100 MB.
“The cool thing is, you don’t have to ask permission, it’s all open source”
At the moment there are 40 species of fish released in the database. But the goal is to scan every species on earth.
“It’s no huge ambition, I just want to scan every fish”
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