Sam Webb Receives the Model

Just a brief update today, but there will be more to follow over the course of this next week (it’s spring break so I’ll have a lot of time to work on the project). We received word back from Sam Webb, who has received the facsimile of the Breslauer Bible. He told us the following:

“One important piece to note is that the original equipment used to hold the Archimedes manuscript no longer exists. I've attached a picture of how the mockup may fit into some of the brackets that we do have available at present.

Note the following:

(A) the page of interest is isolated from the front and the pages behind as well

(B) the book itself is clamped between the metal frame and holder. You will probably want to bring some sort of foam or padding to protect the book I presume.

(C) it is not clear how exactly the front cover will be maintained in an open position.

(D) it would be useful to have several of the plastic straps to insure the pages do not bow in front of the beam.”

While we clearly have a few kinks to work out, we are well on our way to having a workable setup. It was very cool seeing the picture of our model in Stanford—I almost can’t believe we will be there in less than a week!

Staff Scientist Sam Webb

Here is Sam Webb's description from his own webpage:

"I am a beam line scientist at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) in the Structural Molecular Biology (SMB) program. My current interests relate to developing the microscale imaging beam lines here at SSRL, and how these micro x-ray techniques can be applied to research projects in the biological, medical, environmental, and cultural heritage fields. I also work on developing software for data analysis of XAS and imaging data as well as data collection."

He seems like a highly intelligent and skilled scientist. I am sure it will be a pleasure to work with him while at Stanford.

That is all I have to write for today, but Aaron and I should be providing more posts over the course of this week!

- Carl