Hunt for Archimedes' lost words - Scientists decipher Archimedes' work using modern technology

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Archimedes' Hidden Treasure   Archimedes Palimpsest   Leica MZ9.5

Using modern technology to uncover ancient secrets, scientists have deciphered five pages of the only known copy of a 2’300-year-old Greek text by the mathematician Archimedes. The manuscript is the only copy in the original Greek of Archimedes' „On Floating Bodies”. An anonymous buyer purchased the so-called Archimedes Palimpsest at an auction for $2 million and entrusted it to the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. The Conservation is being undertaken by Abigail Quandt, Senior Conservator of Manuscripts and Rare Books. Two teams of scientists, from the Johns Hopkins University and the Rochester Institute of Technology, are using multispectral imaging, confocal microscopy and processing techniques as well as ultraviolet and infrared filters developed for medicine and space research to reveal the hidden text.