Title: Piezonuclear neutrons from earthquakes as a hypothesis for the image formation and the radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud Author: A. Carpinteri, G. Lacidogna, A. Manuello and O. Borla
Some researchers have suggested that corona discharge phenomenon or proton radiation is responsible for the Shroud body image formation, while neutron radiation is liable to a wrong radiocarbon dating. On the other hand, no plausible physical reason has been proposed to explain the radiation source origin, and its possible effects on the linen fibres. However, some recent studies, carried out by the authors at the Laboratory of Fracture Mechanics of the Politecnico di Torino, found that it is possible to generate neutron emissions from very brittle rock specimens in compression through piezonuclear reaction processes. Neutron flux variations, in correspondence to seismic activity, should be a result of piezonuclear reactions. Considering also the Earth's crust, in addition to cosmic rays, as being a relevant source of neutron flux variations, other researchers measured a neutron flux exceeding the background by three orders of magnitude in correspondence to seismic activity and rather appreciable earthquakes (4th Richter's degree). In the first part of this work, the authors consider the possibility that neutron emissions by earthquake piezonuclear reactions could have induced the image formation on Shroud linen fibres through thermal neutron capture on nitrogen nuclei, and provided a wrong radiocarbon dating due to an increment in Carbon14 content. Then they describe their previous studies on the phenomenon of neutron emissions from brittle rocks failure through mechanical tests and microchemical analysis, as well as its relevant geological consequences.
This note is intended to describe why, from an artistic and anatomical perspective, the shroud image is an embarrassingly obvious fraud committed by a Gothic artist following the standard conventions of his time. The artistic errors are so severe that it is impossible for the shroud to record the image of an actual human body - unless it was a very seriously pathological person with a brain the size of a Homo erectus. As well as researching issues including the evolution of brain size, I am an artist who produces 2-D representational works (as opposed to 3-D or abstract pieces), and as such I understand that aspiringly realistic flat art is always a visual illusion based on a set of visual tricks. If the person had the proportions of the image in the shroud, then he was a severely deformed and pathological person who would have cut a shocking figure as he walked down the streets and paths of the Holy Land. Exceptionally tall for his time and place, his rather narrow head was so shrunken and low browed that it would have indicated a unique form of hypocephaly so serious that it would have impaired his mental function, leaving his intellectual performance similar to that of protohuman. Overly long arms would have hung at his sides, with one exceptionally elongated, the other less so because of an atrophied lower arm. It is hard to see how such bizarre attributes would have not been mentioned in an account of his life, assuming anyone bothered to record it considering the circumstances. Because the proportions of the shroud image are essentially impossible, the figure cannot represent that of an actual person. Source
The Turin Shroud, which is believed by some Christians to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, has gone on display for the first time in 10 years. The shroud is expected to draw some two million visitors to the northern Italian city over the next few weeks. Read more
The Shroud of Turin has been reproduced by an Italian scientist in another attempt to prove that the cloth bearing an image of Christ's face is a fake. A professor of organic chemistry at the University of Pavia said he had used materials and techniques that were available in the Middle Ages. These included applying pigment to cloth and then heating it in an oven. Tests 20 years ago dated the fabric to between 1260 and 1390.
Shroud of Turin 'a man-made fake' Scientists have reproduced the Shroud of Turin - revered as the cloth that covered Jesus in the tomb - and say the experiment proves the relic was man-made, a group of Italian debunkers claimed Monday.