back to article New Van Gogh pic discovered using German atom-smasher

There may be some readers out there who aren't entirely clear just what synchrotrons - enormous, kilometre-wide magnetic doughnuts used to thrash electrons within an inch of their lives - are actually for. Today, the news furnishes us with a partial answer - you can use a synchrotron to see old paintings hidden beneath other …

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  1. greg
    Coat

    Good use of science

    So while the mysteries of particle physics remain untouched, we now know that Van Gough liked to scribble out crap paintings.

    Good use of a multi-billion dollar facility if you ask me!

    Mines the one with the magnetic doughnuts in the pocket.

  2. Simon
    Go

    Atom-tastic!

    Some great use of our English Language there

    "thrash electrons within an inch of their lives"

    "spyray"

    And general use of the word "Boffin", excellent!

    The article reads like a mash-up between New Scientist and the VIZ, well done sir.

    So can this method be used on LPs as well, could we find some new refreshing guitar solo or maybe an uttered swear word due to a dropped drum stick incident buried under the thick layer of vinyl?

    Gawd bless science!

  3. dervheid

    Two Van Gogh's...

    for the price of one.

    Now, if the boffins can find some way of actually separating the two paintings, that should just about cover their costs.

  4. Joseph Haig
    Coat

    Re-used canvas.

    "Mr Van Gogh, have you got any second hand canvases that you can use for a new painting?"

    "Yes, I've got one 'ere."

    Mine is the paint-stained overall.

  5. Simon Martin

    @Greg

    DESY has systems for particle physics and systems for X-ray science. I think you will find that no particle physics was harmed during the discovery of the hidden picture.

  6. Tom

    @greg

    Re scribbling out crap paintings - he died too young - I been to the museum in Amsterdam and its full of crap paintings of his.

  7. Hollerith

    the benefits of science to art

    I think this is exciting stuff. Science once again proves that it can provide humanity with uses far beyond its own boundaries. Monet, when young, was so poor that he had to paint over his older canvases. Some he scraped clean, some he didn't. To be able to see a genius's early works as he defines his own style would be extremely interesting. Again, older masters' works could be studied; an x-ray (I think) of Rembrandt's 'Bathsheba' revealed his alterations of the first image, bringing it through many re-thinks to its current form, which is a subtle portrayal of a woman who both repents and will not give up her lover, and who, indeed, cannot, for he is the God-chosen king. To learn a little of Rembrandt's technique was a true gift, and now science can offer us so much more. Worth every single penny.

  8. Martin
    Linux

    Grassist !

    I wonder how excited everyone would be if a hitherto unseen painting

    of a patch of grass had been found beneath a famous Van Gogh portrait?

    .....Paris (beneath the penguin pic)

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A question for the local physicists

    Don't you ever - even for a tiny moment - want to stand in front of a particle accelerator and see if you'll get superpowers?

  10. jai

    re: Two Van Gogh's...

    and both of them look like they were painted by a 10 year old

    i've never been able to see what make's Van Gogh's work so celebrated - if he hadn't be banging the ho and slicing his ear off, would anyone have ever noticed his work?

  11. Mister_C
    Coat

    Two pictures?

    or maybe just one super realistic rendering of VvG's back garden after a previous lover got a "Brookside Patio" job done on her?

  12. John O'Grady
    Black Helicopters

    Not to be Monk-ish, but

    Does anyone else get the creepy suspicion that if you take Van Gogh's know use of imagery and symbolism, that putting a woman's portrait under a "Patch of Grass", you might think that maybe there was a woman that he DID put under a patch of grass? As in murder?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    I wonder if they'll show up lots of ...

    ... bums, tits, fannies and willys?

    There's not many of those in his paintings, I bet he did lots of them thought, then got all embarrassed and painted over them, then chopped off his ear lobe, sent it to another famous painter and shot himself in a field.

    I reckon under his famous sunflowers, there's some naughty bits just waiting to be exposed!

    Paris, because her naughty bits are over exposed.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    RE:A question for the local physicists

    I don't think they have the imagination :-) I would though, but that is probably why I would never be let near such things.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    @Mike Richards

    What local physicists??! You mean there are some left on the island? If so dont tell labour - they will get them to leave very shortly... :(

  16. Andrew Kaluzniacki
    Flame

    @Mike Richards

    I've not done it myself, but some of my Caltech physicist friends have stuck their heads in the high power magnets of a synchrotron. A static magnetic field would have no effect, provided you have no iron fillings. However, by turning ones head, the field is no longer static as far as the brain is concerned and generates small currents directly inside. Colors and tastes were reported.

    Fire for Ricketts Hovse

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Grumblers

    "Meanwhile there will no doubt be some grumblers who feel that, while an unknown Van Gogh picture is very nice, it may not quite provide total justification for the costs of building and running synchrotrons."

    Don't most 'grumblers' object to paying for their grumble-materials and simply download them off the internet's many and varied sources.

    Paris as she makes for a far cheaper grumble than a synchrotron...

  18. Adam Targett

    @Joseph Haig

    I Don't care what anyone else says.. You sir, are a comedy genius.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    So DORIS shows up a femaile pic?

    Come on, you haven't grasped it yet - another ROTM! The thing has become sentient and is simply drawing some new pictures - and scientists believe it.

    Tsk tsk tsk..

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    pity

    there's too many stupid folks who can't see beyond the painting to the extra knowledge gained and other things it might yield. pity more that dolts don't even want to fund experimentation to find out more stuff in the first place.

    I, for one, welcome our atom-smashing overlords.

  21. Adrian
    Black Helicopters

    Big question

    Why did they look for a painting under another painting (unless they knew it was there already). Did van Gogh do this to all his paintings ?

    It's all a conspiracy I tell you

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    How about a link?

    High res pics and a bit more scence...

    http://hasylab.desy.de/news__events/announcements/doris_iii_hidden_van_gogh_painting_revealed/index_eng.html

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    @Mike Richards

    Of course ALL physicists have super powers - or at least they think they do.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    This is a local laboratory for local physicists

    Of course physicists have special powers. The power to make anyone feel stupid by spouting complete rubbish like 'super-cephalic-transition' and then asking if that went over your head?

  25. RW
    Jobs Halo

    The verdict of history

    History will value this discovery of a hidden van Gogh far more highly than all the high energy physics ever done, now or in the future.

    A good haiku is worth more than all the books ever written about quantum mechanics.

    More synchrotrons, and be snappy about it!

    Ballmer #1 'cause the halo has a funny synchrotronish look to it.

  26. Steve Skipper
    Thumb Up

    Cerca, trova

    How funny would have it been if there was a crudely drawn knob underneath.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    big words

    Hmmm... you used "synchrotron" but not "palimpsest". I'm only moderately disappointed, though...

  28. JP Strauss
    Boffin

    Unnecessary fuss over re-using canvas

    In my previous job as Delphi developer, I frequently redrew images on the same canvas.

  29. Robert Brockway
    Linux

    @Andrew Kaluzniacki

    AFAIK the jury is still out on what part magnetism plays in memory and/or brain functioning. If memory is based (at least partly) on magnetism then generating strong magnetic fields in the brain might corrupt memory. The worst part is the poor person probably wouldn't even notice (unless the corruption was so bad they got diagnosed with some form of amnesia). In any case you won't find me turning my head in any strong magnets.

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