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Lost Faces Found: New Tech Reveals Hidden Images in Earliest Photographs

Lost Faces Found: New Tech Reveals Hidden Images in Earliest Photographs

Yannick Morin
May 09, 2024

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Hop in, buckle up, and let's cruise through the fast-paced highway of news - packed with joy, thrills, humor, mysteries, and sexiness. Get ready, set, read!

🗓️ Here's a fun fact about May 9th: On May 9, 1671, Thomas Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels of England from the Tower of London. Despite being caught in the act, Blood managed to escape punishment and even received a pardon from King Charles II. His audacious attempt has since become a legendary tale of attempted robbery in English history

Lost Faces Found: New Tech Reveals Hidden Images in Earliest Photographs

Credit: National Gallery of Canada/Sham et al., Journal of Cultural Heritage

A crew of researchers from Canada and the US is diving into the past, using X-rays to breathe new life into 18th-century photographs called Daguerreotypes. These images, once tarnished beyond recognition, are now being resurrected with stunning clarity, revealing the faces of individuals captured centuries ago. Led by Tson-Kong Sham from Western University of Canada, the team teamed up with the National Gallery to obtain severely tarnished Daguerreotypes for their groundbreaking research. By employing a synchrotron X-ray device, they're extracting specific elements present on the Daguerreotypes, essentially peeling back the layers of time to unveil these long-hidden portraits.

Daguerreotypes, those unique positive images on silver-plated copper, were revolutionary when introduced in 1839. In their study published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage, Sham and his colleagues delve into the intricate process of creating these historical treasures. By using synchrotron X-ray technology, they're able to meticulously reconstruct these tarnished images, pixel by pixel, revealing the intricate details of our ancestors' lives. Beyond resurrecting old photographs, this technique holds promise for unveiling hidden details in various scientific materials, from fossils to metal artifacts, opening up new avenues for exploration across different fields of science. (Source)

An Ancient Collapse of Earth’s Magnetic Field Led to Multicellular Animals Emerging

A groundbreaking discovery sheds light on the origins of multicellular life on Earth, offering tantalizing evidence linked to a rare event: the near-collapse of our planet's magnetic field. Roughly 650 million years ago, during a period known as the Ediacaran, life on Earth was sparse. However, within a narrow 26 million-year window, multicellular organisms began to emerge and diversify. This coincided with a drastic weakening of Earth's magnetic field, which researchers from the University of Rochester suggest led to significant changes in the atmosphere and oceans. The decrease in hydrogen content and increase in oxygenation likely paved the way for metabolically demanding activities, such as movement, enabling the evolution of complex life forms.

This geologic revelation, detailed by Professor John Tarduno and his team, underscores the critical role of Earth's magnetic field in shaping the evolution of life. By analyzing magnetic signatures preserved in crystals, the researchers unveiled a correlation between the decline of the magnetic field and the rise of multicellular organisms during the Ediacaran Period. This weakening of the magnetic shield allowed for increased oxygen levels, facilitating the development of macroscopic life forms. Understanding this link between magnetic fluctuations and biological evolution offers new insights into the intricate relationship between our planet's geology and the emergence of complex life. (Source)

✨ Quote of the day

Mark Twain: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do."

✨Chart of the day

Southeast Asia’s GDP Per Capita, by Country (Source)

Hit the picture to supersize it and save your peepers a strain 👇

Source: visualcapitalist

📰 Want to know what else is going down in this Wild World of ours?

Attorney, family of Black airman fatally shot by Florida deputies want a transparent investigation (Source)
New storms pummel the South as a week of deadly weather marches on (Source)
First shipment of aid to the US-built floating pier in Gaza departs from Cyprus (Source)

Today's Birthday Spotlight: Celebrating Rosario Dawson's Special Day!

Rosario Dawson, born on May 9, 1979, in New York City, was raised in a vibrant and diverse household by her mother, Isabel Celeste, a writer and singer of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, and her stepfather, Greg Dawson, an engineer of Irish descent.

Find Celebrities Born on Your Day!

Source: Popular People Bio

🎭 Before She Was Famous

Hey, wanna see more pictures of Julia Roberts before she became famous? Check ‘em out here.

Source: Popular People Bio

📸 Feast Your Eyes on Today's Stunning Snapshot Series: The Ever-Gorgeous Tyra Banks

Did you know that Tyra Banks, in addition to her supermodel status and fierce runway walks, was also the first African-American woman to grace the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue? Talk about breaking barriers with style!

Let's get right back to the main event we've all been waiting for: those smoking hot Tyra Banks pictures!