{"id":231422,"date":"2026-04-05T08:33:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T12:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/05\/as-a-book-scientist-i-work-with-microscopes-imaging-technologies-and-ai-to-preserve-ancient-texts\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T09:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T13:50:11","slug":"as-a-book-scientist-i-work-with-microscopes-imaging-technologies-and-ai-to-preserve-ancient-texts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/05\/as-a-book-scientist-i-work-with-microscopes-imaging-technologies-and-ai-to-preserve-ancient-texts\/","title":{"rendered":"As a \u2018book scientist\u2019 I work with microscopes, imaging technologies and AI to preserve ancient texts"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a \u2018book scientist\u2019 I work with microscopes, imaging technologies and AI to preserve ancient texts<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/theconversation.com\/as-a-book-scientist-i-work-with-microscopes-imaging-technologies-and-ai-to-preserve-ancient-texts-278154<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-04-05 08:33:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Cultural heritage is constantly under threat. In recent years, we\u2019ve witnessed the destruction of museums, archives and libraries around the world \u2014 from wildfires in California to bombing in Gaza and wars in Ukraine and Iran.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, book scientists are working tirelessly with an array of technologies \u2014 including microscopes, multispectral imaging and artificial intelligence \u2014 to recover, understand and preserve many valuable ancient texts.<\/p>\n

This approach transforms what we can know about the past, as we learn how old books were made and how they change over time. It also helps us to care for fragile collections at a moment when climate change and mass digitization are reshaping cultural heritage work.<\/p>\n

I work in this space as a PhD student at the University of Toronto as part of the Old Books New Science Lab and the Matrix Functionalization and Phenotyping Lab. I collaborate with conservators and heritage scientists to study parchment manuscripts and imaging-based approaches to preservation.<\/p>\n

From papyrus roll to palm leaf<\/h2>\n

Across cultures and millennia, \u201cbooks\u201d have taken many forms, each shaped by local materials and technologies. <\/p>\n

A book can be a papyrus roll, a palm leaf manuscript or a clay tablet. <\/p>\n

Books can be made from animal skins, stretched thin to provide a writing surface. They can include pigments ground from minerals and plants, or metallic inks that corrode the surface beneath them. <\/p>\n

Three book formats on display: a pothi (palm leaf manuscript), a Ge\u2019ez prayer book in codex format, and papyrus fragments in glass.<\/span>
\n (C. Nguyen, courtesy of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library)<\/span>, Author provided (no reuse)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n Read more:
\n Iran\u2019s cultural heritage in the crossfire \u2013 expert explains what has been damaged and what could be lost
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Faded texts become legible<\/h2>\n

A 13th century Jewish manuscript held at the University of…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a \u2018book scientist\u2019 I work with microscopes, imaging technologies and AI to preserve ancient…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/723832\/original\/file-20260313-57-89x5yj.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C156%2C1248%2C624&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-231422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231424,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231422\/revisions\/231424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}