News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on X-rays reveal censored portions of Marie Antoinette’s letters to Swedish count. Parent comment

Re:X-rays reveal censored portions of Marie Antoinette’s let... by boomboomsubban on Sunday October 03, 2021 @07:57AM (#28736477)
The scientific process is interesting, and I don't object to it's use on Egyptian papyrus or the Dead Sea Scrolls.

I find it unlikely anyone was expecting to find some revelatory details in the letters between Marie Antoinette and her alleged lover. They just wanted to know more about her intimate affairs.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:X-rays reveal censored portions of Marie Antoinette’s let... by Armisael16 on Sunday October 03, 2021 @09:40AM (#28737078)
This was really more of a proof of technique. Marie Antoinette’s letters were readily available (the team is French).

The article on Ars is pretty shit at conveying that - you have to get to the 7th paragraph for any technical details to come up - but that’s an(other) indictment of Ms. Oulette, not the research team.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:X-rays reveal censored portions of Marie Antoinette’s let... by boomboomsubban on Sunday October 03, 2021 @02:38PM (#28739464)
From the article

>So when Fabien Pottier and several colleagues at the Museum of Natural History's Research Center for the Conservation of Collections (CRCC) took on the task of uncovering the censored portions of letters between Marie Antoinette and von Fersen, they naturally turned to similar techniques.

That doesn't sound like developing the method was their primary goal.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:X-rays reveal censored portions of Marie Antoinette’s let... by Armisael16 on Sunday October 03, 2021 @06:21PM (#28741013)
Right, the article is garbage. The paper is in an open-access journal. You can just go read it.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:X-rays reveal censored portions of Marie Antoinette’s let... by boomboomsubban on Sunday October 03, 2021 @07:42PM (#28741537)
The paper also sounds like the technique was developed to read these letters, and that it will hopefully be useful elsewhere.
[ Parent | on HN ]