A closer look
X-rays are fantastic for looking at broken bones, but they will blast you with ionizing radiation. Microwaves are safe, but they lack the resolution to see fine details. The sweet spot is the terahertz gap, and MIT researchers finally built a camera system capable of exploiting it. Terahertz radiation effortlessly penetrates non-conducting materials like plastic, clothing, and paper without ripping your DNA apart. The MIT system utilizes these waves to measure the microscopic distance between stacked pages and sense the distinct chemical absorption signatures of ink. It essentially grants scientists Superman-level X-ray vision, allowing them to read the contents of an ancient, physically sealed book without ever opening the cover.
