Controversy over the use of Roman ingots to investigate dark matter and neutrinos
Friday, November 29, 2013 - 11:30
in Astronomy & Space
The properties of these lead bricks recovered from ancient shipwrecks are ideal for experiments in particle physics. Scientists from the CDMS dark matter detection project in Minnesota (USA) and from the CUORE neutrino observatory at the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy have begun to use them, but archaeologists have raised alarm about the destruction and trading of cultural heritage that lies behind this. The journal Science has expressed this dilemma formulated by two Spanish researchers in the United Kingdom.