Herculaneum scrolls unlocked using photon beams
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Herculaneum scrolls unlocked using photon beams
#2Man I wish they told me what they said.
Re: Herculaneum scrolls unlocked using photon beams
#3Here's the paper in Nature Communications:
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150120/ncomms6895/full/nco...
"Revealing letters in rolled Herculaneum papyri by X-ray phase-contrast imaging"
It's bizarre that BBC calls X-rays "photon beams," like something out of Star Trek. Maybe using X-rays to read rolled-up scrolls doesn't sound so amazing? (The details of how they did it are amazing; this is not your grandpa's X-ray imaging system.)
Re: Herculaneum scrolls unlocked using photon beams
#4'photon beams' seams like an unnecessarily complicated way of saying x-ray?
Re: Herculaneum scrolls unlocked using photon beams
#5'photon beams' seams like an unnecessarily complicated way of saying x-ray?
clickbait!
Re: Herculaneum scrolls unlocked using photon beams
#6Here's the paper in Nature Communications : http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150120/ncomms6895/full/nco... "Revealing letters in rolled Herculaneum papyri by X-ray phase-contrast imaging" It's bizarre that BBC calls X-rays "photon beams," like something out of Star Trek. Maybe using X-rays to read rolled-up scrolls doesn't sound so amazing? (The details of how they did it are amazing; this is not your grandpa's X-ra…
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Re: Herculaneum scrolls unlocked using photon beams
#7'photon beams' seams like an unnecessarily complicated way of saying x-ray?
Yes. At first I thought it was a joke article, wherein someone had the brilliant idea of turning on a light in order to see a scroll previously unreadable because it was hidden in a dark cave. "How did you manage to read the scroll?" "Photon beams!" "Whoaaaa"
Re: Herculaneum scrolls unlocked using photon beams
#8'photon beams' seams like an unnecessarily complicated way of saying x-ray?
I thought they meant some kind of visible light laser and wondered why they didn't just say 'light beams'. After all, visible light is the most familiar form of photon to most people.
Re: Herculaneum scrolls unlocked using photon beams
#9'photon beams' seams like an unnecessarily complicated way of saying x-ray?
How about this: "Scientists couldn't see what was written on the scrolls until they turned on some lights." The connotation behind "photon beams" more accurately conveys the accomplishment than the roughly synonymous "turning on some lights".
Re: Herculaneum scrolls unlocked using photon beams
#10'photon beams' seams like an unnecessarily complicated way of saying x-ray?
Think the plural on beams refers to the beam splitting going on in phase-contrast x-ray imaging http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-contrast_X-ray_imaging
They didnt use the traditional x-ray imaging that has been around for a hundred years.