Ideas change everything

Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes

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William Noel |

TEDxSummit

• April 2012

How do you read a two-thousand-year-old manuscript that has been erased, cut up, written on and painted over? With a powerful particle accelerator, of course! Ancient books curator William Noel tells the fascinating story behind the Archimedes palimpsest, a Byzantine prayer book containing previously-unknown original writings from ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes and others.

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How do you read a two-thousand-year-old manuscript that has been erased, cut up, written on and painted over? With a powerful particle accelerator, of course! Ancient books curator William Noel tells the fascinating story behind the Archimedes palimpsest, a Byzantine prayer book containing previously-unknown original writings from ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes and others.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxSummit, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

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About the speaker

Curator, rare book scholar

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William Noel is a curator who believes museums should make their collections free and available on the Internet.

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxSummit, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.