Modern Technology Reveals Ancient Science

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X-ray fluorescence scan revealing both the Euchologion and Archimedes texts on a folio with a forged painting. The Archimedes text runs vertically in this image. (Credit: Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
X-ray fluorescence scan revealing both the Euchologion and Archimedes texts on a folio with a forged painting. The Archimedes text runs vertically in this image. (Credit: Archimedes Palimpsest Project)

Finally, after more than 1000 years in obscurity, the last unreadable pages of the works of ancient mathematician Archimedes are being deciphered, thanks to the x-ray vision at the Department of Energy’s Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). This discovery gives us the most complete record of Archimedes’ works since the middle ages.


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All News summaries for August 02, 2006