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Scientists x-rayed ancient Egyptian tomb paintings to better understand the painters' creative process.Every painter has a process, but the painstaking revisions and countless tiny edits are invisible to those who only see the final product. In a study published today in PLOS ONE, researchers used x-rays to reveal how 3000-year-old paintings inside Egypt’s Theban Necropolis unfolded step by step. The findings hint at the creative process used to produce these ancient masterworks.Applying the x-ray method to ancient Egyptian wall paintings “is really a game changer,” says Marine Cotte, a chemist at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, who previously collaborated with...

When a massive star collapsed in the Cassiopeia constellation, it generated a supernova explosion with some of the fastest shockwaves in the Milky Way. These speedy shock waves are one of the reasons the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova remnant was chosen to be our Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer’s (IXPE) first observed object. This composite image, made of data from IXPE, the Chandra Observatory, and the Hubble Telescope, shows Cas A. IXPE’s investigation of Cas A from Jan. 11 to Jan. 29, 2022, added crucial information about the behavior of exploded stars’ magnetic fields: scientists found that the magnetic fields...

A team of researchers has found that the application of a pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) following radiotherapy reduced bone loss in test mice. Prior research has shown applying radiotherapy to cancerous tumors results in death of the cells that make up the tumor. But the use of radiotherapy has a major drawback—when it strikes bone, it results in loss of bone mass so that bones become more fragile and patients develop a high risk for bone fracture. Over the past several years, some research has suggested that firing an electromagnetic field at damaged bone can encourage bone cell growth and...

It sounds simple, but to treat someone you suspect has COVID, you need to confirm they are actually infected with the coronavirus. In the UK, it is easy to take this for granted – we've had a reliable detection method for diagnosing infected patients widely available since early on in the pandemic. This allowed for people to be treated and cared for promptly, saving lives. The main technique for identifying whether someone has COVID is called reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction testing – or RT-PCR. This process can tell whether the coronavirus's genetic material is present in a sample taken...

A French surgeon is facing legal action and condemnation after auctioning an X-ray of a gunshot wound from a victim of the 2015 massacre at the Bataclan theater in Paris where 90 people were killed. The surgeon promoted the sale of the X-ray in the form of a non-fungible token on the marketplace called OpenSea. The surgeon has been identified as Emmanuel Masmejean, an orthopedic surgeon at the European Hospital Georges Pompidou in southwest Paris. Martin Hirsch, who manages Paris' public hospitals, called the incident "disgraceful," in a tweet in French, as translated by Insider, saying, "This act is contrary...

The Nanox.ARC advanced imaging system provides 3-D digital imaging which could rapidly diagnose pneumonia caused by COVID-19.As another wave of COVID-19 sweeps the world, this time propelled by the Omicron variant, the Israeli company Nanox, together with Shamir Medical Center in Tzifrin, has launched a pilot program of the Nanox.ARC advanced-imaging system to enable rapid indication of patients with worsening pneumonia as a result of COVID-19. “This could be a game-changer for COVID patients who do not have access to more expensive machines,” said Shamir CEO Prof. Osnat Lev Zion Korach. Shamir revealed that it had the system on Wednesday...

A new piece of X-ray technology may help prevent illegal drug and gun smuggling at the U.S.-Mexico border. Security technology company Viken Detection created a unique handheld scanner called the HBI-120 for law enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. It’s goal is to help fight drug trafficking, terrorism and other hazardous threats, all with a simple X-ray scan... Officers can quickly find items in compartments hidden in the seats of a car. “No kidding, in ten seconds an officer who has never even put hands on this machine found 8 kilos of meth in a compartment," he explained....

A pair of 2,000-year-old Roman scrolls believed to have belonged to the family of Julius Caesar, and were buried and charred during Vesuvius’ eruption, have been virtually “unwrapped” for the first time ever. The scrolls, known as the Herculaneum Scrolls, are too fragile to be handled by hand, so researchers needed to use the X-ray beam at Diamond Light Source, as well as a “virtual unwrapping” software to detect the carbon ink on them. “Texts from the ancient world are rare and precious, and they simply cannot be revealed through any other known process,” University of Kentucky professor Brent Seales,...

About eight hundred years ago, a ship sank in the Java Sea off the coast of the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. There are no written records saying where the ship was going or where it came from -- the only clues are the mostly-disintegrated structure of the vessel and its cargo, which was discovered on the seabed in the 1980s. Since the wreck's recovery in the 1990s, researchers have been piecing together the world that the Java Sea Shipwreck was part of. In a new study in the Journal of Archaeological Science, archaeologists have demonstrated a new...

Researchers have shown that ancient Egyptian iron beads held at the UCL Petrie Museum were hammered from pieces of meteorites, rather than iron ore. The objects, which trace their origins to outer space, also predate the emergence of iron smelting by two millennia. Carefully hammered into thin sheets before being rolled into tubes, the nine beads – which are over 5000 years-old - were originally strung into a necklace together with other exotic minerals such as gold and gemstones, revealing the high value of this exotic material in ancient times. The study is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science....

Despite the name, there was iron in the Bronze Age. It was just extremely rare. Most famously, the pharaoh Tutankhamun had a headrest, bracelet and dagger made of iron. Other iron artifacts from the same time have also been found around the globe. The existence of these artifacts has led to an archaeological debate: was there, in fact, iron smelting in the Bronze Age? According to a new chemical analysis, the answer is no. The iron humans had during the Bronze Age came from space.

We may still be looking for proof that aliens exist, but new research into some very curious ancient tools now reveals that humans were using extraterrestrial material long before mankind even dreamed of flying out of Earth’s atmosphere. The findings, which were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, reveal that some incredibly old iron artifacts date to a time well before humans had the technological wit to smelt iron ore, and as it turns out, the iron used in their construction actually fell from the sky. Archaeologists have long suspected that the iron occasionally found amongst Bronze Age artifacts...

King Tut owned a dagger that was out of this world—literally. Researchers have recently published a study in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science that supports what has long been suspected: The ancient Egyptians were using meteoritic iron well before the spread of iron smelting technology. The recent study on King Tut’s dagger, led by researchers from Italy and Egypt, used X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry to analyze the composition of the iron blade. Iron meteorites mostly contain iron and nickel, and the results of the XRF analysis on King Tut’s dagger confirm that the blade is mostly composed of iron...

Italian and Egyptian researchers analyzed the metal with an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to determine its chemical composition, and found its high nickel content, along with its levels of cobalt, “strongly suggests an extraterrestrial origin”. They compared the composition to known meteorites within 2,000km around the Red Sea coast of Egypt, and found similar levels in one meteorite.

A high-contrast, black-and-white image of your bones is an effective tool for spotting fractures or breaks. But after 120+ years, x-ray imaging is getting a remarkable update with 3D, full-color images that reveal far more than just the bones inside you. These images will improve what a doctor can diagnose without cutting you open. The traditional approach to imaging the insides of a patient involves blasting them with x-rays. This electromagnetic radiation has a shorter wavelength than visible light, so it can easily pass through soft tissue, but it has more trouble passing through harder materials like bones. On the...

X-ray vision is no longer the stuff of comic books. BIONIC soldiers with X-ray vision could soon be a reality thanks to a new wireless system that uses radio-waves to map people's movements behind walls. Researchers at MIT trained artificial intelligence to analyse radio signals that bounce off human bodies to create a dynamic stick figure that mimics a person's actions. The above and below pics show three people that have been mapped by the wireless AI device using radio signals The tech allows you to see them through walls as moving stick men _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The so-called neural network can...

This is the moment a passenger climbed into an x-ray machine because she did not trust train security staff with her handbag. An unbelievable photograph shows the women on all fours on a conveyor belt as she follows her bag as it passes through the security scanner. It is thought the woman did not want to be separated from her bag and its contents at Dongguan Railway Station in China’s southern Guangdong Province. And while it is unclear what she was carrying in her handbag it is likely to have been wads of cash traditionally given as a gift for...

Hollywood actress Jessica Chastain insisted on Tuesday that it takes months to obtain an X-ray in America, compared to minutes to purchase an AR-15. Chastain is known for her roles in Zero Dark Thirty, Interstellar, and The Martian. In a tweet on Tuesday, she included the handle for her less popular pro-gun control movie Miss Sloane, which in December 2016 had one of the worst opening weekends of all-time. Jessica Chastain ✔ @jes_chastain Welcome to America, where you'll wait 6 months for an X-ray but hey, you can buy an AR-15 in 5 minutes flat. Chastain was mocked by others,...

A sleek, subterranean X-ray laser set to be unveiled in Germany today, the most powerful in the world yet, has scientists in a dozen fields jostling to train its mighty beam on their projects. European XFEL will reveal - and capture in images - secrets at the sub-atomic level, promising breakthroughs in medicine, biology, energy, information technology and chemistry. It will map the molecular architecture of viruses and cells, render three-dimensional nano-scale snapshots and film chemical reactions as they unfold. Earth scientists should be able to duplicate and study processes occurring deep inside planets, including our own. "The laser is...

King Tut was buried with a dagger made of an iron that literally came from space, says a new study into the composition of the iron blade from the sarcophagus of the boy king. Using non-invasive, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, a team of Italian and Egyptian researchers confirmed that the iron of the dagger placed on the right thigh of King Tut's mummified body a has meteoric origin. ...