Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Solar Energy News .




TECH SPACE
Rock paper fungus
by Staff Writers
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Jul 27, 2015


Diwaker Jha, an imaging specialist from Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, has managed to get a first look at how fungus goes about infesting paper. This is good news for conservators trying to save historical books and letters. Image courtesy Jes Andersen/University of Copenhagen. For a larger version of this image please go here.

Believe it or not: X-ray works a lot better on rocks than on paper. This has been a problem for conservators trying to save historical books and letters from the ravages of time and fungi. They frankly did not know what they were up against once the telltale signs of vandals such as Dothidales or Pleosporales started to spot the surface of their priceless documents

Now Diwaker Jha, an imaging specialist from Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, has managed to adapt methods developed to investigate interiors of rocks to work on paper too, thus getting a first look at how fungus goes about infesting paper. The findings are published in the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry.

This is good news for paper conservators and others who wish to study soft materials with X-ray tomography. "Rocks are easy because they are hard. The X-ray images show a very good contrast between the solid and the pores or channels, which are filled with low density materials such as air or fluids. In this case, however, paper and fungi, both are soft and carbon based, which makes them difficult to distinguish", says Diwaker.

Diwaker Jha is a PhD student in the NanoGeoScience group, which is a part of the Nano-Science Center at Department of Chemistry. He investigates methods to improve imaging techniques used by chemists and physicists to investigate how fluids move in natural porous materials. At a recent conference, he was presenting an analysis method he developed for X-ray tomography data, for which he was awarded the Presidential Scholar Award by the Microscopy Society of America. And this sparked interest with a conservator in the audience.

Hanna Szczepanowska works as a research conservator with the Smithsonian Institution in the USA. She had been wondering how fungi interact with the paper. Does it sit on the surface, or does it burrow deeper? If they are surface dwellers, it should be easy to just brush them off, but no such luck, says Jha.

"As it turns out, microscopic fungi that infest paper grow very much the same way as mushrooms on a forest floor. However, unlike mushrooms, where the fruiting body emerges out of the soil to the surface, here the fruiting bodies can be embedded within the paper fibres, making it difficult to isolate them. This is not great news for conservators because the prevalent surface cleaning approaches are not adequate", explains Diwaker Jha.

In working out a way to see into the paper, Jha investigated a 17th century letter on a handmade sheet and a 1920 engraving on machine-made paper. Compared with mushrooms, these fungi are thousands of times smaller, which required an advanced X-ray imaging technique available at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France.

The technique is very similar to medical tomography (CT scanning) done at hospitals but in Grenoble the X-ray is produced by electrons accelerated to about the speed of light in an 844 meter long circular tube. A handy comparison: "If I were to use medical X-ray tomography to look at an Olympic village, I would be able to make out only the stadium. With the synchrotron based X-ray tomography, I would be able to distinguish individual blades of grass on the field.".

Diwaker hopes that conservators will be able to use the new insight to develop conservation strategies not just for paper artefacts but for combating biodegradation on a host of other types of cultural heritage materials. And that the developed methods can be extended to other studies related to soft matter.


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Faculty of Science - University of Copenhagen
Space Technology News - Applications and Research






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





TECH SPACE
Bringing back the magic in metamaterials
Houghton, MI (SPX) Jul 21, 2015
A single drop of blood is teeming with microorganisms--imagine if we could see them, and even nanometer-sized viruses, with the naked eye. That's a real possibility with what scientists call a "perfect lens." The lens hasn't been created yet but it is a theoretical perfected optical lens made out of metamaterials, which are engineered to change the way the materials interact with light. Wh ... read more


TECH SPACE
Tropical peatland carbon losses from oil palm plantations may be underestimated

How do biofuel perennials affect the water cycle?

Scientists study ways to integrate biofuels and food crops on farms

Biogas to biomethane by water absorption column at low pressure and temps

TECH SPACE
Software program recognises sketches more accurately than a human

Scientist develops model for robots with bacteria-controlled brains

Hitchhiking robot begins journey across U.S.

US team beats Iranians in Robocup football final

TECH SPACE
Galapagos airport evolves to renewable energy only

Siting wind farms more quickly, cheaply

Can you actually hear 'inaudible' sound?

Con Edison Development Continues to Build Its Wind Power Portfolio

TECH SPACE
Chaos is an inherent part of city traffic

GM earnings surge on solid sales in US, China

Software patch issued after hackers take over Jeep

New fuel-cell materials pave the way for practical hydrogen-powered cars

TECH SPACE
Engineered hybrid crystal opens new frontiers for high-efficiency lighting

Fast, efficient system to produce graphene for energy storage applications

CEC awards annual winners

In search of a healthy and energy efficient building

TECH SPACE
French energy company ENGIE expanding reach

Swedish energy group Vattenfall reveals 3.9 bn euro write-down

Slovakia, Enel discuss construction of nuclear power plant

Slovenia, Croatia discuss settlement of nuclear plant waste

TECH SPACE
Spanish energy company Iberdrola surviving downturn

Zimbabwe company inks $1.1bn thermal power deal with China

Economic slump, not natural gas boom, responsible for drop in CO2

Tradable Energy Quotas offer fair and effective route to low carbon society

TECH SPACE
Myanmar jails Chinese nationals for illegal logging: report

Controlled burns increase invasive grass in hardwood forests

China ire as Myanmar jails scores for illegal logging

In a warming forest, fungi may be key to trees' survival




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.