AI and scientists unite to decipher old scrolls charred by the Vesuvius volcano
Hundreds of papyrus scrolls were found in the 1750s in the remains of a lavish villa at the Roman town of Herculaneum, which along with neighboring Pompeii was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.
The library of what's called the Villa of the Papyri has the potential to add immeasurably to knowledge of ancient thought if the scrolls, which have been rolled up into the size of a candy bar, could be read.
The heat and volcanic ash from Vesuvius destroyed the town and preserved the scrolls, but in an unreadable state, turning them into charred fragile blocks that disintegrate if unrolled physically.
Scholars and scientists have worked for more than 250 years on ways to decipher the scrolls, the vast majority of which are held in the National Library of Naples.
In 2023, several tech executives sponsored the 'Vesuvius Challenge' competition, offering cash rewards for efforts to decipher the scrolls with machine learning, computer vision and geometry.
On Wednesday, the challenge announced a 'historic breakthrough,' saying researchers had managed to generate the first image of the inside of one of the three scrolls held at Oxford University's Bodleian Library.
University of Kentucky computer scientist Brent Seales, co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, said the organizers were 'thrilled with the successful imaging of this scroll.' He said it 'contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll.'
The scroll was scanned by Diamond Light Source, a lab at Harwell, near Oxford, that uses a particle accelerator known as a synchrotron to create an intensely powerful X-ray.
Scientists then used AI to piece together the images, search for ink that reveals where there is writing, and enhance the clarity of the text. The process led to a 3D image of the scroll that allowed experts to unroll it virtually, using a process called segmentation.
AI, as it stands, has its limits. Little of the text has been deciphered so far. One of the few words that has been made out is the ancient Greek for 'disgust.'
Scholars are being encouraged to join in the effort to complete the text.
'We are still at the beginning of a long process,' Peter Toth, the Cornelia Starks Curator of Greek Collections at the Bodleian, told The Associated Press. 'We need better images, and they are very positive and very, very confident that they can still improve the image quality and the legibility of the text.'
Toth also laid out his hope that the technology can be made available locally so that the other two fragile scrolls won't have to be transported to Diamond's headquarters.
'Maybe there will be something which can be moved,' he said. 'And then don't forget that there is like 1000 more scrolls in Naples.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Largest piece of Mars found on Earth sells for millions, sets new auction record
A 25 kilogram Mars rock named [NWA 16788]( that was discovered in Niger's Sahara Desert by a meteorite hunter in 2023 has exceeded expectations at a recent Sotheby's auction, selling for $5.3 million, the [Associated Press]( (AP) reports. It has set a [new auction record]( for a meteorite. Experts estimated it would sell for between $2 million and $4 million. The buyer's identity is unknown. Their final bid was for $4.3 million, with the final cost totalling an additional $1 million due to 'fees and costs,' AP says. A significant discovery The rock, which was dislodged from Mars following an asteroid strike, travelled 225 million km to reach Earth. 'NWA 16788 is approximately 70 per cent larger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth,' reads a statement on the Sotheby's website. 'Pieces of Mars are unbelievably rare: of the more than 77,000 officially recognized meteorites, only 400 are Martian meteorites, with an approximate combined weight of 374 kg. Weighing 24.67 kilograms, NWA 16788 represents approximately 6.5 per cent of all Martian material currently known.' Sotheby's says the meteorite is covered in a reddish-brown crust, giving it an 'unmistakable Martian hue': 'Regmaglypts, or surface depressions formed by frictional heating during rapid descent through Earth's atmosphere, are also visible on the surface of the meteorite. NWA 16788 shows minimal terrestrial weathering, indicating that its physical and chemical makeup have not been significantly altered since its arrival in the Sahara Desert. In other words, NWA 16788 is likely a relative newcomer here on Earth, having fallen from outer space rather recently.' NWA 16788 (pictured here) is approximately 70 per cent larger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth. (Sotheby's) How meteorites can help us understand Earth's atmosphere Meteorites like NWA 16788 help scientists better understand the ancient Martian environment, including finding evidence of water or atmosphere in Mars' distant past. "While robotic missions to Mars continue to shed light on the planet's history, the only samples from Mars available for study on Earth are Martian meteorites," Lauren White, a systems engineer at NASA's jet propulsion laboratory said in 2014. Some meteorites also carry clues about Earth's own climate and atmosphere when they're recovered, especially when their chemical interactions with Earth's environment are analyzed. Dinosaur skeleton prompts bidding war The Martian rock wasn't the top seller at the auction. That distinction goes to a rare dinosaur skeleton, which prompted a bidding war, eventually selling for $30 million. The specimen is one of only four known Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeletons, and it is the only known juvenile skeleton. The species resembles the T. Rex, but smaller. RELATED: What is winter like on Mars? Header image: NWA 16788 (Sotheby's)
San Francisco Chronicle
10 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
This Tom Holland-Zendaya movie is selling out screenings a year before its release
Homer's ancient Greek saga 'The Odyssey' is about a heroic quest, and it appears it will be an epic achievement for cinemagoers just to get tickets to Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated 2026 film. In an inspired promotion to mark the film's one-year-out release date, Universal Pictures and IMAX made tickets available for four select 70mm IMAX screenings during the film's first weekend of release, July 16-19, 2026. Tickets went on sale at 9 p.m. Wednesday, July 15, at 26 theaters around the world, including three in Northern California, and within a few minutes nearly all were sold. As of Thursday morning, only a few seats in the front rows remained at the AMC Metreon 16, Regal Hacienda Crossings in Dublin and the Esquire IMAX Theatre in Sacramento. AMC's website briefly crashed on Wednesday. 'The Odyssey' stars Tom Holland as Telemachus, who goes on an epic search for his lost father, Odysseus (Matt Damon). Oakland native Zendaya, Holland's fiancée, has also been cast, but her role has not been revealed. The movie's cast also includes Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Elliot Page, Lupita Nyong'o, Charlize Theron, Mia Goth, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo and Benny Safdie. It is the first feature-length film to be made entirely with IMAX cameras. Nolan, a champion of film technology who refuses to go digital, has been using IMAX cameras for select sequences in his movies since ' The Dark Knight ' (2008), including his Oscar-winning 2023 film ' Oppenheimer.' If advance ticket sales are an indicator, 'The Odyssey,' budgeted at $250 million, seems like a threat to match the $975 million taken in by 'Oppenheimer,' which made 20% ($190 million) of its box office sales in IMAX screenings. After 'Oppenheimer''s success, Nolan worked with IMAX to upgrade its cameras so he could film 'The Odyssey' entirely in the immersive format. Issues that Noland had with the cameras' weight and noise as well as processing of the 70mm film stock were resolved. The cameras are reportedly 30% quieter during filming. 'He forced us to rethink that side of our business,' IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond told reporters at the Cannes Film festival in May. One thing's for sure: There won't be a repeat of 'Barbenheimer,' the box office battle between Greta Gerwig's 'Barbie,' which took in $1.45 billion, and 'Oppenheimer,' both released on the same day in July 2023. Though Nolan and Gerwig are skipping the same-day release strategy this time, Gerwig's first 'Narnia' movie, based on the C.S. Lewis books, is scheduled to hit IMAX screens later in the year on Thanksgiving Day in 2026.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
This new 3-person IVF technique saved kids from inherited diseases
Eight children in the U.K. have been spared from devastating genetic diseases thanks to a new three-person in vitro fertilization technique, scientists from Newcastle University reported on Wednesday. The technique, which is banned in the U.S., transfers pieces from inside the mother's fertilized egg – its nucleus, plus the nucleus of the father's sperm – into a healthy egg provided by an anonymous donor. The procedure prevents the transfer of mutated genes from inside the mother's mitochondria – the cells' energy factories – that could cause incurable and potentially fatal disorders. Mutations in mitochondrial DNA can affect multiple organs, particularly those that require high energy, such as the brain, liver, heart, muscles and kidneys. One of the eight children is now 2 years old, two are between ages 1 and 2 and five are infants. All were healthy at birth, with blood tests showing no or low levels of mitochondrial gene mutations, the scientists reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. All have made normal developmental progress, they said. The results "are the culmination of decades of work," not just on the scientific/technical challenges but also in ethical inquiry, public and patient engagement, law-making, drafting and execution of regulations and establishing a system for monitoring and caring for the mothers and infants, reproductive medicine specialist Dr. Andy Greenfield of the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the research, said in a statement. The researchers' "treasure trove of data" is likely to be the starting point of new avenues of investigation, Greenfield said. Often during IVF screening procedures, doctors can identify some low-risk eggs with very few mitochondrial gene mutations that are suitable for implantation. But sometimes all of the eggs' mitochondrial DNA carries mutations. In those cases, using the new technique, the U.K. doctors first fertilize the mother's egg with the father's sperm. Then they remove the fertilized egg's 'pronuclei' – that is, the nuclei of the egg and the sperm, which carry the DNA instructions from both parents for the baby's development, survival and reproduction. Next, they transfer the egg and sperm nuclei into a donated fertilized egg that has had its pronuclei removed. The donor egg will now begin to divide and develop with its healthy mitochondria and the nuclear DNA from the mother's egg and the father's sperm. This process, detailed in a second paper in the journal, 'essentially replaces the faulty mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) with healthy mtDNA from the donor,' senior researcher Mary Herbert, professor of reproductive biology at Newcastle, said at a press briefing. Blood levels of mtDNA mutations were 95% to 100% lower in six newborns, and 77% to 88% lower in two others, compared to levels of the same variants in their mothers, the researchers reported in a second paper. In case you missed it: They spent over $200K to expand their family. Doctors say it's common for LGBTQ+ couples. "These data indicate that pronuclear transfer was effective in reducing transmission of mtDNA disease," they said. The procedure was tested in 22 women whose babies were likely to inherit such genes. In addition to the eight women who delivered the children described in this report, another one of the 22 is currently pregnant. Seven of the eight pregnancies were uneventful; in one case, a pregnant woman had blood tests showing high lipid levels. There have been no miscarriages. Noted: Ask for genetic testing. It could save your life. The authors of the current reports have also tried transplanting the nucleus of a mother's unfertilized egg into a donor egg and then fertilizing the donor egg afterward, but they believe their new approach may more reliably prevent transmission of the genetic disorders. In 2015, the U.K. became the first country in the world to legalize research into mitochondrial donation treatment in humans. That same year in the U.S., pronuclear transfer was effectively banned for human use by a congressional appropriations bill that prohibited the Food and Drug Administration from using funds to consider the use of "heritable genetic modification". Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Lisa Shumaker This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A new 3-person IVF technique saved kids from inherited diseases Solve the daily Crossword
