-- PARIS -- A kilogram just isn't what it used to be.No need to panic, nerdy guys in white coats are on it.
The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight – if ever so slightly.
Many measurements have undergone makeovers over the years. The meter was once defined as roughly the distance between scratches on a bar, a far cry from today's high-tech standard involving the distance that light travels in a vacuum.**********
RELATED: The truth is, I'm jealous
I wish I'd been more of a geekazoid... so I could work on cool stuff that actually adds something to the sum of human knowledge.
The hidden content in ancient works could be illuminated by a light source 10 billion times brighter than the Sun.**********
The technique employs Britain's new facility, the Diamond synchrotron, and could be used on works such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or musical scores by Bach.
Intense light beams will enable scientists to uncover the text in scrolls and books without having to open, and potentially damage them.
NOTE: Blogging will be light today.
Have to travel to the Devil's Armpit (Toronto) to run a few errands.
Pray for me.
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