Science is cool

Researchers at Stanford are using a Particle Accelerator to read lost text of ancient mathematician Archimedes. The documents were scrubbed and overwritten some 800 years ago by a monk. Apparently, the electrons from the accelerator cause remnant bits of iron in the original ink to glow, rendering the text readable. Another interesting piece to the story; the guy who came up with the idea of using the accelerator is a biologist. He had utilized the same technology to study plant vascular systems. So while this isn’t going to solve global warming or cure cancer, it is great metaphor for scientific research; using your head to reveal the previously unknown.