The manuscript’s owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, paid $2 million for the document at auction in 1998. Two conservators recently brought the rare text to California for the X-ray scan.
"To my knowledge, this is the first time the Stanford equipment will be used for such an application," said Mary Miller, a science producer at San Francisco's Exploratorium museum, which hosted the event.
Miller explained to Discovery News that the high-tech equipment is often used to study photosynthesis in leaves at the molecular level. The powerful device is now tuned to read iron, which was in the ancient scribe’s ink.
Iron atoms have 26 electrons orbiting around a nucleus. The X-ray beam literally knocks out one of the electrons in the iron atom’s innermost orbit.
Another electron then replaces the missing one, but it has less energy because the nuclear bond is not as tight. The lost energy emitted by the replacement electrons results in the signature X-ray glow.
"The public will be able to see this ancient text for the first time at the very same moment that scholars view it," Miller said before the live webcast. "It will offer the public an opportunity to participate in the discovery experience."
