An astonishing new technology is bringing damaged and faded ancient texts to light. Scientists demonstrated its potential by scanning and translating the Khirbet Qeiyafa inscription during a news conference this morning.

Researchers at MIT have developed the Subatomic Ultra-Parsing Epigraphic Resolving Digital Uranium-Potassium Electrical Rotoscoping Chemical Oscillating Orthographic Laser computer scanner that can reconstruct any ancient inscription whether faded, damaged, or even missing completely.

Broken and faded inscriptions have confounded scholars for generations. Now, a group of graduate students under the supervision of MIT Professor Q. Rutherford “Scotty” Dufenschmirtz have created a machine able to detect microscopic chemical elements in the writing surface. The machine analyzes the variations caused by ink or chiseling marks and displays patterns on a screen, permitting people to “see” the shapes of ancient letters.

The new method is so precise, it even detects tiny particles that originated from missing/broken portions of a writing surface. By studying…

Many cultural conventions appear like the result of historical accidents. The QWERTY – keyboard is a typical example: the technical requirements of early typewriters still determine the computer keyboard that I write this text on, even though by now technical advances would allow for a far more efficient design. Some culturally accepted oddities, however, appear to reflect the biological requirements of human beings. The way musicians are seated in an orchestra is one such case, but the listener is, surprisingly, not the beneficiary.

When one goes to a concert one typically sees a seating somewhat like the one below: strings in the front, then woodwinds further back, then brass. What is less obvious is that, in general, higher pitched instruments are seated on the left and lower pitched instruments on the right. The strings show this pattern perfectly: from left to right one sees violins, violas, cellos and then basses…

In the midst of Louisville’s 85-63, Final Four clinching victory over the Duke Blue Devils on Sunday, Cardinal sophomore Kevin Ware suffered quite possibly the most gruesome leg injury in the history of competitive sports.