see, high energy physics are good for something

here's a neat project from slac (oh, sorry, did i go all acronym? it's the stanford linear accelerator): the stanford synchotron radiation lab is using x-ray beams to decipher archimedes's ancient writings.

apparently, archimedes's works had been vandalized:

In the 10th century, an anonymous scribe copied Archimedes' treatises in the original Greek onto the parchment. But three centuries later, a monk "palimpsested" the parchment: he scraped away the Archimedes text, cut the pages in half, turned them sideways, and copied Greek Orthodox prayers onto the recycled pages. Adding further injury, forgers in the early 20th century painted religious imagery on several pages in an attempt to elevate the manuscript’s value. The result was the near obliteration of Archimedes' work, except for the faintest traces of ink still embedded in the parchment.