Ultra-bright light can read a book without opening it

News Type: Event — Seeded on Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:24 PM EDT

Article Source: The Times

science, dead-sea-scrolls, scanning, diamond-light-source, valuable-parchments

Historic parchment manuscripts that are too fragile to be unfolded, such as parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, could soon be read without being opened using a scanning technique that relies on the world's brightest light.

British scientists have already used the Diamond Light Source, a £370 million facility near Didcot in Oxfordshire that shines 10 billion times more brilliantly than the Sun, to decipher the contents of several parchment documents without unfolding them.

Published to:

Synthesis's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: ArchaeoVine, Historical Vine, Newsvine Science, Science And Technology
Regions: none

What's this?

Who's leading the conversation?

This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

9.0

{"commentId":1019137,"authorDomain":"PrimarySources"}

Synthesis

Yes, but can it be used on clothing? (I'm still bitter about that whole X-Ray Spex fraud when I was 9...)

{"commentId":1019137,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"PrimarySources"}

3 votes

#1 - Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:24 PM EDT

{"commentId":1019393,"authorDomain":"jarandhel"}

Jarandhel

Considering that the normal light of the sun is known to cause bleaching, I'm forced to wonder: is this technique potentially harmful to the manuscripts involved?

{"commentId":1019393,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"jarandhel"}

3 votes

#2 - Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:14 PM EDT

{"commentId":1019618,"authorDomain":"killfile"}

Killfile

10 Billion times brighter than the sun?

I used to have a magnifying glass when I was a kid that I could use to set fire to dry leaves and facial tissues. I can't imagine that it concentrated light 1,000,000,000 times.... how dry are the dead sea scrolls again?

Seriously... how does this work?

{"commentId":1019618,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"killfile"}

1 vote

#2.1 - Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:03 PM EDT

{"commentId":1019655,"authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

Tedd Riggs

Light can be brighter, but have less energy (i.e. less heat) For example using the sun thru a magnifying glass is concentrating a large amount of energy in a small area plus you also have the UV effects to add. By contrast you could point a laser pointer at leaves all day and nothing would happen. Same concept with the new LED flashlights, they are far brighter then the old style, but use less (also put off less) energy (heat).

Does that kinda make sense ?

{"commentId":1019655,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

5 votes

#2.2 - Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:18 PM EDT

{"commentId":1019604,"authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

Tedd Riggs

Interesting find and unique use of X-ray tomography. I had the same bleaching question/concern.

{"commentId":1019604,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

2 votes

#3 - Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:57 PM EDT

{"commentId":1020713,"authorDomain":"stevetherobot"}

stevetherobot

This article, which I can't get to open at the moment, calls the device a 'diamond synchotron' which is a really cool name.

{"commentId":1020713,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"stevetherobot"}

2 votes

#4 - Thu Sep 13, 2007 10:58 AM EDT

{"commentId":1020912,"authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

Tedd Riggs

He and colleagues use it to take a series of high-resolution X-rays from different angles

I like the new name better also ! I got the link to open, but it was very slow.

{"commentId":1020912,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

2 votes

#5 - Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:05 PM EDT

{"commentId":1021879,"authorDomain":"PrimarySources"}

Synthesis

This article in Gizmodo uses the following phrase:

England's Diamond synchotron, a device that covers five football "pitches" and is capable of generating an X-Ray light source that's 10 billion times brighter than the sun,

The key word distinction is that it is a light source generating x-rays; I suspect the effect of bleaching is attributable to specific wavelengths, a characteristic that light in x-ray wavelengths wouldn't share...?

{"commentId":1021879,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"PrimarySources"}

1 vote

#6 - Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:04 PM EDT

{"commentId":1021972,"authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

Tedd Riggs

I am going to have to do some homework on this one as I normally think of bleaching caused by visible light (i.e. most common is sunlight and photo-flash) and UV light. Since this is a X-Ray application and in a totally different frequency spectrum, maybe (hopefully.....) that paper is not affected by this. I am not sure I fully understand the "five football pitches" unless somehow its a unique way to refer to range of frequency ? Just doing a bit of guessing on what sounds like slang to me. To me, a "Diamond X-Ray" sounds alot like a MRI.

{"commentId":1021972,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

1 vote

#7 - Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:38 PM EDT

{"commentId":1029758,"authorDomain":"jarandhel"}

Jarandhel

Tedd: Football pitches is a term for soccer fields. It's saying the device is the size of five soccer fields.

Synthesis: How can x-rays be "brighter"? More intense, sure I'll buy that. But "brightness" is usually a quality of visible light.

{"commentId":1029758,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"jarandhel"}

2 votes

#8 - Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:09 AM EDT

{"commentId":1030816,"authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

Tedd Riggs

OK thanks Jarandhei for clearing up pitches. Much of that article did not really make sense to me. Comparing visible light to X-Rays as you say is two totally different units of measurement, Kelvin to the visible eye, Mega/Gigahertz of course for higher. Then the part about the large size of it ! I usually think of high frequency devices as being smaller. So will have to see what this thing amount to after time. Thanks for the update Jarandhei !

{"commentId":1030816,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

1 vote

#9 - Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:05 PM EDT

{"commentId":1339266,"authorDomain":"PrimarySources"}

Synthesis

Tedd and Jarandhel both, I apologize for not seeing these comments. The comment tracker just burped and coughed them up for the first time (that's the danger of using the comment tracker primarily to track comments on your column...)

More intense, sure I'll buy that

I'm no expert, Jarandhel...but that's probably what was meant....

{"commentId":1339266,"threadId":"149702","contentId":"958630","authorDomain":"PrimarySources"}

1 vote

#9.1 - Mon Jan 7, 2008 6:34 PM EST

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"149702","isPrivate":false}

SYNTHESIS

Backyard

Ultra-bright light can read a book without opening it

Published to:

FUN STUFF:

COMPANY STUFF:

LEGAL STUFF:

Pollution blamed for fall in Arctic baby boys	The Times	Wed Sep 12	1
Happiness Classes 'Depress Pupils'	The Times	Sat Sep 15	0
Testosterone finding backs the 'extreme male brain' autism theory	The Times	Wed Sep 12	0
Mushiking Fans Threaten Real Beetles With Extinction	The Times	Wed Sep 12	0
Widdecombe to advertise pasta on TV	The Times	Mon Sep 10	0