While digging a well in 1750, a group of workers accidentally discovered an ancient Roman villa containing over a thousand papyrus scrolls. This was a stunning discovery: the only library from antiquity ever found in situ. But the scrolls were blackened and fragile, turned almost to ash by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Over the centuries, scholars’ many attempts to unroll the fragile scrolls have mostly been catastrophic. But now, scientists are trying again, this time with the help of Silicon Valley and some of the most advanced technology we’ve got: particle accelerators, CT scanners, and AI.

After two thousand years, will we finally be able to read the scrolls?

Featuring Federica Nicolardi, Brent Seales, Youssef Nader, Arefeh Sherafati, and Julian Schilliger.

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LINKS

The Vesuvius Challenge is not over. Find out more here.

Check out more pictures of the scrolls and the process of “virtual unwrapping” at the Digital Restoration Initiative website, or watch Brent Seales lecture about his technique.

A 60 Minutes story (2018) focusing on the conflict between Seales and scholars Vito Mocella and Graziano Ranocchia.

A replica of the marble floor discovered by Italian farmworkers in 1750.

A video illustrating the process of “virtual unwrapping” with a jelly roll.

Contestant Casey Handmer’s blog post detailing his identification of the “crackle signal” to the ink.

CREDITS

Outside/In host: Nate Hegyi

Reported, produced, and mixed by Justine Paradis

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Our team also includes Felix Poon.

NHPR’s Director of Podcasts is Rebecca Lavoie

Music in this episode came from Silver Maple, Xavy Rusan, bomull, Young Community, Bio Unit, Konrad OldMoney, Chris Zabriski, and Blue Dot Sessions.

Volcano recordings came from daveincamas on Freesound.org, License Attribution 4.0 and felix.blume on freesound.org, Creative Commons 0.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.

The Colorado River – and the people that rely on it – are in a state of crisis. Climate change and overuse are taking a significant toll. Seven states must compromise and reach a solution to prevent the river from collapsing.

In late 2023, tensions were running high between the major players in the water world as they convened at the annual Colorado River conference in Las Vegas. LAist Correspondent Emily Guerin was there, seeking to learn as much as she can about the people with the most power on the river, including a sharply-dressed 28-year-old from California.

This episode comes to us from the podcast Imperfect Paradise, which is releasing a whole series on the Colorado River water crisis.

SUPPORT

Donate $10 per month and get our new “I axolotl questions” mug!

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.

Subscribe to our newsletter (it’s free!).

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.

LINKS

Agriculture uses a lot of the Colorado River - what if we replaced that farmland with solar panels?

Speaking of farms, most of the crops raised with Colorado River water don’t go to people. They go to cows.

CREDITS

This episode was written and reported by Emily Guerin

Imperfect Paradise host: Antonia Cereijido

Fact-checking by Gabriel Dunatov.

Mixing and Imperfect Paradise theme music by E. Scott Kelly with additional music by Andrew Eapen.

Outside/In Host: Nate Hegyi

Outside/In Executive producer: Taylor Quimby

Our staff includes Justine Paradis and Felix Poon

Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).

You might associate it with the foil that wraps leftover pizza and the shiny craft beer cans sold in breweries, but aluminum is literally everywhere. Scoop up a handful of soil or gravel anywhere on Earth, and you’ll find atoms of bonded aluminum hidden inside. Over the past 150 years, that abundance has led production of the silvery metal to skyrocket (pun intended) and created an industry responsible for 2-3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

But even before it was used in everything from airplanes to deodorant, the trade of aluminum minerals helped color the world, finance the Vatican, and led to the mass collection of human urine.

In this episode, we’re piloting a new segment called “The Element of Surprise.” It’s all about the hidden histories behind the periodic table’s most unassuming atoms, isotopes, and molecules. And we’re kicking things off with aluminum.

Editor's note: A previous version of this episode misstated the number of Allied casualties during a 1943 bombing campaign against a German cryolite factory, claiming all but one of 180 bombers were destroyed. In actuality, all but one of 180 bombers returned home safely. The episode has been corrected.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.

Subscribe to our newsletter (it’s free!).

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.

LINKS

The World Economic Forum has published a number of studies and articles on the need to decarbonize the aluminum industry and the promising technologies that might help us get there.

A few years ago, Alcoa announced plans to build a new aluminum smelting plant in Maniitsoq, Greenland. PBS’s POV released a documentary about how people there reckoned with the island’s colonial past as the project progressed, stalled, and eventually collapsed.

The National Park Service has a fun little read about the Washington Monument’s aluminum tip.

Sean Adams, at the University of Florida, wrote an excellent recap of the U.S. government’s antitrust case against aluminum giant Alcoa.

Here’s another one from Foreign Policy about how industrial cartels and monopolies helped Hitler gain power.

Check out Charlie Halloran’s “The Alcoa Sessions,” to imagine what kind of music might have been played during Alcoa’s cruise voyages between New Orleans and Jamaica between 1949 and 1959.

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported, mixed, and produced by Taylor Quimby

Mixed by Taylor Quimby

Editing by Rebecca Lavoie, with help from Nate Hegyi and Felix Poon

Our staff includes Justine Paradis

Executive producer: Taylor Quimby

Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio

Music by Blue Dot Sessions, Ryan James Carr, and L.M. Styles

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).