Secrets in the Ancient Goatskin: Archimedes Oldest Writings Under X-ray Vision Uwe Bergmann Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory Friday, Dec. 7, 2007 10:30 a.m., Red Auditorium—Gaithersburg VTC with Boulder will be in Room 1107

Please join me in the fascinating journey of a 1,000 year old parchment from its origin in Constantinople to an X-ray beam line in California. The 10^th century parchment document known as the Archimedes Palimpsest is the unique source for two of his treatises—the Stomachion and The Method of Mechanical Theorems. Much of the text has been imaged by various optical techniques, but significant gaps remained. A breakthrough in uncovering the missing writings was achieved recently at SSRL.  Using X-ray fluorescence imaging, writings from faint traces of the partly erased iron gall ink were brought to light. The X-ray image revealed Archimedes writings from some of his most important works covered over by 12^th century biblical texts and 20^th century gold forgeries.

Anyone outside NIST wishing to attend must be sponsored by a NIST employee and receive a visitor badge. For more information, call Kum J. Ham at 301-975-4203.

Colloquia are videotaped and available in the NIST Research Library.