The Stanford University physicist who provided the first view of the oldest surviving document of writings by Archimedes will describe the feat in a free public lecture at Sonoma State University.
Uwe Bergmann will speak at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, in Darwin 103. Coffee, cookies, and conversation will be available in the Darwin lobby at 3:30 p.m..
The lecture is titled "Secrets in the Ancient Goatskin: Archimedes' Manuscript under X-Ray Vision."
Using the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, part of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Bergmann and his colleagues x-rayed a parchment on which a text by the ancient Greek genius had been written in the tenth century and scraped off and overwritten with Greek Orthodox praryers in the 13th, creating what is called a palimpsest. The powerful x-ray beam uncovered the original writings, adding significantly to the known writings of Archimedes.
The talk is one in a series presented by SSU's department of physics and astronomy. For a free poster describing all twelve lectures, see http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/wpd/, send e-mail to phys.astro@sonoma.edu, or phone (707) 664-2119.
