SCIENCE

=SCIENCE= //"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong.////"// — Richard P. Feynman

This page is devoted to Science that needs to be done on the Shroud of Turin. Currently it doesn't seem likely that access to the shroud will become available in the near future, but it is essential to be prepared for the time when that situation will change. A good deal of science can be done without access to the shroud. This page is the jumping off point for both 1) **//Science to be done with the shroud as a component//**, and 2) **//Science which needs to be done where access to the shroud is not a requirement.//** [Investigators are encouraged to describe the kind of science which needs to be done.]

(Requires the shroud as a component)
1. **HIGH RESOLUTION SCANS** A complete, extremely high detailed scan of the shroud at the level of the Mark Evans micrographs but wideband multispectural of both sides of the shroud would provide a truly complete data base of the shroud. It would be the shroud equivalent of the Human Genome Project. The shroud image, no matter how excellent the conservation, is slowly losing its contrast as the non-image portion ages. The sooner the image is definitively scanned at the highest possible resolution the sooner we will know that the image has been preserved at its state at the time of the scan for future generations.

(Does not require access to the shroud.)
1.**EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF IMAGING MECHANISMS** Theories of image formation are only as good as their experimental support. Imaging experiments should be done to establish more definitively what mechanisms can approximate the shroud image characteristics. For example Pellicori has generated surface aging on linen that is microscopically similar to the shroud using mists of lemon juice on the hand and a brief exposure followed by heating the linen to simulate aging.

2. **BANDING STUDIES** The shroud has both horizontal and verticial bands that modify the appearance of the image raising the possiblity that some of the things people see when they look at the shroud are actually artifacts of the human visual perception system. There is both reflective banding and transmission banding. Image analysis of the banding phenomenon would potentially lead to the ability to remove the banding and also possibly enhance the image where the image is fainter than normal in some banding areas, ex. on the sides of the face.