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Beamlines To Reveal Secrets of the Mummies

Posted by timothy on from the look-deep-inside-you-are-getting-sleepy dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "A British X-ray with a light ten billion times brighter than the sun is to be used to reveal the secrets of statues, mummies, sarcophagi and other ancient artifacts to analyze their composition and how they were made. Three Egyptian bronze figurines from the British Museum will be among the first treasures to be investigated by the Joint Engineering, Environmental and Processing beamline, or Jeep, using intense radiation known as synchrotron light which allows scientists to see through solid objects and to show structural details that cannot be seen by standard X-rays. 'It might give us the chance to look at the contents. The Egyptians used to stash things inside their statues. We also get very fragile inner sarcophagi or mummy wrappings,' says Jen Hiller, a scientist working on the beamline. In Grenoble a team has used synchrotron radiation to discover the first known fossilized brain, of a fish-like creature; details are to be published this month. In California it is being used to decipher the Archimedes palimpsest — a text by the Greek mathematician that was overwritten in medieval times."

5 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Apparent brightness I presume? by spinkham · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I assume the "10 billion times brighter then the sun" is an apparent brightness measurement of the sun at the earth, and not of the suns actual luminosity. If it is actually that much brighter then the sun, then that's REALLY impressive...

    --
    Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
  2. Mummy question by BigHungryJoe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Every once in a while, I'll hear someone say -

    "Autopsies performed on the remains of mummies show that they had cocaine alkaloids in their system, which means that the ancient Egyptians traveled to South America"

    I've always suspected that was complete hogwash. I would appreciate it if someone would shed some light on THAT mummy mystery.

    1. Re:Mummy question by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Well, the Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl (http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl) believed that it was possible for the ancient Egyptians to sail to South America. He built a raft out of papyrus reeds and had a couple of goes at it, himself.

      Whether the ancient Egyptians actually undertook such a journey, and came back with their luggage stuffed with cocaine, is a matter for pure speculation.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:Mummy question by dkleinsc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      He more than had a "couple of goes at it": on his second attempt he succeeded in traveling from Morocco to Barbados.

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      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  3. Wow .. my job is simple by DigitalDreg · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Every once in a while I read something that I just can't believe, and I have to run to Wikipedia to do some background reading. Synchrotron radiation was one of those things for me ...

    It makes my day job seem trivial.