Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

One Color, Different Density

That was a new aspect I had not considered. To see what Rogers meant by essentially identical spectrum-wise but different density-wise we need some lemon Jell-O. On a sheet of white paper put a very thin slice of the wiggly stuff on the paper. Beside it put a thick slice. Both slices have the same color but the thicker slice looks darker. This adds another element to the visual blending.

So not only are the images negatives (though not photographic negatives), not only are they height-fields, they are halftone or pixel formed at a fiber level. The best that we can say is, “that’s funny,” for all of these things so far defy logical explanation. And it doesn’t stop there.

The images are decidedly the result of a selective, color producing chemical change along distinct lengths of some of the cellulose fibers of the linen. Chemists who examined the fibers described the chemical change as an oxidation, dehydration and conjugation of polysaccharides (long-chain sugar molecules). It was once widely thought that this was a chemical change to the fiber itself, not unlike the oxidation and dehydration that takes place as linen turns yellow with age.  But Rogers believed he found a clear, ultrathin sugary coating on the fibers. He called it an impurity layer. The yellow color of the images, he thought, was caused by a chemical change to the impurity layer and not the fibers themselves.