In the latest achievement in efforts to see what may lie
underneath the surface of great works of art, scientists today described the
first use of an imaging technology like that used in airport whole-body
security scanners to detect the face of an ancient Roman man hidden below the
surface of a wall painting in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
They described unveiling the image, which scientists and art
historians say may be thousands of years old, during the 245th National Meeting
& Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest
scientific society. The meeting, with almost 12,000 presentations, continues
here through Thursday.