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Giving paintings an eye exam. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.
To find evidence of disease in the retina of the human eye, doctors use an imaging technology called Optical Coherence Tomography, or OCT. It can find abnormalities in different layers of the tissue. Now researchers in Poland have discovered that the same technology can help uncover forged paintings. OCT lets them see many different layers of the painting, without harming it.
In other news, scientists in Spain report in the journal Applied Physics Letters that they’ve developed a method for using ultrasound to analyze leaves without touching them. They shoot pulses of ultrasound at the leaves and listen to how they vibrate. That reveals the leaves’ water content, density and other information that could indicate signs of stress or disease in trees or crops. I’m Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the Science Society.