IF YOU WANTED to read an ancient Roman scroll, you might reach for a dictionary, and perhaps a magnifying glass. You would probably not think of using a particle accelerator. But that is what is ...

Armed with new tools, scholars are finally able to read papyrus scrolls long deemed too fragile to open. The breakthrough could literally change history. Team leader Youssef Nader and two other team ...

People write down lots of things—from epic poems and sacred texts to tax decrees and shopping lists. But these things are of little use to anyone if they can’t be read. In the past few decades, ...