Ohio Shroud of Turin Conference Blog

Proceedings of the Ohio Conference Available

On August 14-17, 2008, an international conference, "The Shroud of Turin - Perspectives on a Multifaceted Enigma," was held at the Blackwell Hotel at Ohio State University. Organized by Joe Marino and Sue Benford and sponsored by the Shroud Science Group (SSG), the conference was dedicated to the late Raymond Rogers, STURP chemist, and his important contributions to Shroud research, and in part to commemorate the 30th anniversary of STURP's 1978 scientific examination of the Shroud. The conference attracted more than 85 attendees from Australia, Canada, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Panama, Spain and the United States and included approximately 40 presentations and open forum discussions.

Prof. Giulio Fanti of the University of Padua undertook the difficult task of editing and compiling a printed Proceedings of the event. The 8 1/8" x 11½" (20.7 cm x 29.2 cm) book contains 478 pages and includes all the papers presented at the conference, hundreds of photographs, program notes and additional information.  Two DVDs of the conference are included with book. Copies are available at the shroud.com Website Store for US$39.00, plus US$11.00 for USPS Priority Mail shipping & handling.

Unwrapping the Shroud: New Evidence to be Rebroadcast on the Discovery Channel

The Discovery Channel will be rebroadcasting “Unwrapping the Shroud: New Evidence” on Sunday February 1 at 9 p.m. EST and again 4 hours later at 1 a.m.  (Check your local listings). It will be broadcast on Discovery’s regular and HD channels.

This Shroud of Turin documentary was first shown in December and received numerous positive reviews. Part of it was recorded at Ohio State University during a conference of about 100 scientists, historians and other researchers last August.

Discovery is featuring the broadcast on their home page. 

The documentary clearly explains why the previous carbon dating has been shown to be invalid by peer-reviewed scientific studies including the work of Raymond Roger and subsequently a team of scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

If you have wondered about the latest evidence concerning the shroud, this is an excellent production. Even if you are skeptical, it will help explain why many people believe it is genuine or are at least open to the possibility that it is.

Technorati Tags: Turin Shroud,Shroud of Turin,Christianity,Discovery Channel,Shroud Science Group,Joe Marino,Sue Benford,Ray Rogers,Los Alamos

Source: Unwrapping the Shroud: New Evidence to be Rebroadcast on the Discovery Channel

Conference Scientist responds to Raleigh News and Observer story on the Shroud of Turin

T. V. Oommen writes in a letter published by the paper:

I am responding to the Aug. 29 article “Scientists debate shroud’s date.” As a scientist involved in the shroud’s study and research, and as a participant in the recent Ohio Shroud Conference where I made a presentation on “Shroud coins dating by image extraction,” I can emphatically say that there is plenty of evidence for the antiquity of the shroud as of first century origin.

There were several presentations on the erroneous dating of the shroud by the 1988 radiocarbon(C-14) dating. The area where the samples were taken was from a medieval patch with cotton, which appeared to blend perfectly with the linen shroud. If this is true, the main body of the shroud should show an ancient date. The theory that the entire shroud could show a more recent date because of the newer carbon generated during fiery events remains to be proven.

Some other scientists also propose similar views; for example, that powerful radiations from the resurrection event must have generated C-14. So another carbon dating of the shroud may not resolve the issue.

The coin identification I presented showed Pontius Pilate coins issued AD 30/31 placed on the eye area, which implies the shroud’s age is very close to that. Read more about it at www.ohioshroudconference.com.

T.V. Oommen

Raleigh

Source: Dating the shroud - A scientist responds to the story in the News and Observer

Ohio Shroud of Turin Conference Conference audios accessible online

Audios of most of the presentations at the conference are accessible at:  http://www.shrouduniversity.com/ohiocon2008.php

(Reposted from Ohio Shroud of Turin Conference Blog: Conference audios accessible online)

Comments on the Ohio State University Shroud of Turin Conference by Ray Schneider

The Ohio Shroud Conference held at the Blackwell Hotel on the grounds of Ohio State University from August 14 to 17, 2008 was a landmark conference in shroud studies for a number of reasons.  Perhaps most significant is that it was a conference sponsored by a loosely organized group of scientists, historians, medical doctors, and scriptural exegets and people who are just very interested in the Shroud of Turin.  This group meets at an invitation only Yahoo group named the Shroud Science Group.  The result was a conference with unprecedented openness compared with many earlier shroud conferences which were often by invitation only.  This made the Ohio Shroud Conference the first that I have heard of that was like a real science conference.  The fact showed in the papers which on occasion contradicted one another.  It is the nature of real science to have real conflicts not predigested homogenized "ready to eat" preordained results.  That is not to say that other shroud conferences have not had controversies, for they certainly have, but the tone and character were different.  So the first characteristic was that the conference was a bottom up grass roots shroud investigator conference.  For the first time there were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generate shroud investigators present (here marking STURP as first generation).

The conference was significant in at least three other ways: 2) It is the first conference to encourage and feature student poster papers.  These papers were of uniformly high quality, although I was disappointed with the showing of United States students.  We obviously need more shroud student research in the U.S., 3) it featured a surprise talk by a team from Los Alamos National Laboratory which reported on characterization of threads taken from the Raes sample of 1973 which is near the Carbon 14 1988 sample area and showed that all the sample threads were cotton demonstrating that the region is anomalous and therefore supporting the findings of LANL Fellow, now deceased, Ray Rogers. 4) another significant paper was 3D imaging work done by a team guided by Dr. Petrus Soons.  This work, reported as computational holography, showed the best 3D rendering of the shroud ever presented both dorsal and ventral as well as full face images.  These were shown in both 3D with blue-red glasses, and in 3D animation so that the motion of the image reflected the 3D information.

A very open discussion of the C14 result and suggestions to move beyond that result by doing further C14 testing was a pleasure to participate in because it was open to all, wide ranging and reflected the whole tone of the conference.  The only disappointment I had besides the fact that we didn't have more student papers, is that the attendance was not as high as it might have been.  I tend to chalk that up to the fact that this was what I'd call colloquially "a pick up" conference. The conference organizers were somewhat inexperienced, especially relative to publicity and a few cracks and seams showed.  But whatever weaknesses the conference had it was more than made up for by the significance of the papers, the excellence of the site, and the energy at the sessions.  It's going to be a hard conference to beat.

Regards, Ray
--
Ray Schneider,PE, Ph.D
Math and Computer Science
Bridgewater College
http://www.bridgewater.edu/~rschneid/

Comments on the Ohio State University Shroud of Turin Conference by Dr . T. V. Oommen

This conference was a very timely one, and brought Shroud scholars from all over the world to discuss the latest findings and future plans. It fitted well betwen the 2005 Dallas Shroud conference and the 2010 Shroud expo in Turin. The Shroud Science Group did a wonderful job of organizing this conference. Special thanks to Joe Marino and Sue Benford who took the lead. The various speakers brought their special contributions regarding Shroud dating, image formation, and Shroud history. For me it was also an occasion to see and get acquainted with several of the STURP team and other scholars of the 'Wave One' group such as Rex Morgan, Paul Maloney and Peter Shield. It was a privilege for me also to see for the first time Dr . Kenneth Stevenson, co-author of the 1978 classic, Verdict on the Shroud  which summarized all the scientific tests done by the STURP team.

Dr . T. V. Oommen

Comments on the Ohio State University Shroud of Turin Conference by Pete Schumacher

This was a wonderful conference, well organized and rapid fire sessions. Joe did a fantastic job of setting it up and the conference staff and web site were most helpful. The facilities were top notch, five star, in all aspects. If there had been a little more time for breaks and for browsing the displays and conversing with the students about their topics, it would have been only slightly better. Great media facilities and well-managed speaker flow, even during the lengthy discussion on Saturday night. As it is, it was ACES! Congratulations to Joe and all who assisted.

Pete Schumacher

Comments on the Ohio State University Shroud of Turin Conference by Kevin E Moran

2008 Shroud of Turin Conference

Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

This conference was far superior to the 2005 Dallas meeting organized by a Machiavellian lawyer collecting signatures for sale! This was a true international meeting held to accomplish cooperation, exchange meaningful information and work with old colleagues and new friends. It was as the organizer Joe Marino named it “multifaceted” It was truly open to the public. There were people from Australia, Canada, Israel, Italy, and other countries as well as a video greeting from Bill Meachem in Hong Kong. Rex Morgan, from Australia, gave an excellent over view of Shroud research history and projected the need for future work. There were 6 from the original 1978 investigators who spent 5 days and nights working on the Shroud in Turin, some gave papers and all participated in a panel session with questions from the audience. There was a new report on work on sample fibers from the late Ray Rogers by Los Alamos Scientific Lab. Avinoam Danin, botanist from Israel, presented the science behind the flowers found on the Shroud. Dr. Petrus Soons from South America showed his computer generated hologram of the face on the Shroud and explained how it was made.

Barrie Schwortz presented a DVD “Tribute to the STURP team 1978 – 2008”. It was a great “music video” using pictures he took at the testing and some never before published. As usual Barrie helped presenters, took documenting photos, ran the over head projector and just was a great assistant to all. His enthusiasm and professionalism was wonderful.

VP-8 Demonstration of Old Serial Number 56

Thanks to the help of Rich Orareo, from Boston and Pete Schumacher, from Alamogordo, New Mexico, we were able to assemble a complete VP-8 system for demonstration for old and new Shroud people. Rex Morgan said he had not seen a working system in 30 years. Guilio Fanti was able to test the face cloth of Manopella. Even though he had a good picture, it was nothing like the Shroud. It proved to be the work of an artist.

Richard Orareo purchased the VP-8 used on eBay for his “Boston Shroud Collection” museum. It required work to get it back to life by Pete Schumacher. More was spent shipping it around the country for repairs then it cost to buy on eBay! I was able to combine Serial #56 with other equipment that we acquired for the Atlanta museum of the late Fr. Kim Dreisbach. As some may know, the Museum in the Omni Center was taken over by Ted Turner for his video studio. The main exhibits were put in storage for years, but the VP-8, Serial #51, was kept out in my shop for testing photos from all over the world. I can add that I have never been sent a photo that comes even close to the Shroud in the 3D presentation mode. And the Manopella cloth was no exception.

Kevin E Moran
Belmont, NC

Conference audios accessible online

Audios of most of the presentations at the conference are accessible at:  http://www.shrouduniversity.com/ohiocon2008.php

Conference Program (low res)

A low-resolution PDF of the conference program can be found at:  http://www.ced.osu.edu/download/shroud_of_turin_program.zip