An intense neutron burst

Press, 8 March 1989, Page 21

An intense neutron burst

A new row over the Turin Shroud, the cloth in which the body of Christ was alleged to have been wrapped after the crucifixion, has broken out between academics, writes Robin McKie in the “Observer.”

Scientists, writing in the current issue of “Nature,” have angrily denounced a suggestion that their dating of the shroud may have been upset by the act of resurrection itself. Last year, leaked reports said scientists had discovered that the shroud, long venerated as a holy relic, was in fact a medieval fake. These reports are now

confirmed in papers published in “Nature.” Ages ranging from AD 1260 to AD 1390 were revealed — finally, it would seem, putting the controversy over the authenticity of the Shroud to rest. But in the same issue of “Nature,” Thomas Phillips of Harvard University, argues in a letter to the editor that the Shroud does indeed date from the time of Christ Phillips believes the scorched appearance of the image on the shroud might have been produced by a resurrecting body. He also argues that an intense burst of neutrons may

have been released during the resurrection, changing some of the shroud into carbon-14. This would spoil attempts to date the shroud using carbon-14, making it seem less antique than it really is. The suggestion has not amused some of the scientists involved in the original research. As Robert Hedges, of the Radiocarbon Accelerator Research Unit at Oxford points out: “No plausible mechanism has been proposed to explain how the resurrection was accompanied by a significant neutron flux.”