The Greek scientist Archimedes may have died more than 2,000 years ago, but the world is still learning new things about him, said Timothy Graham, director of the Institute of Medieval Studies.
On Friday and Saturday, the institute will host a free event at Woodard Hall on the Archimedes Project.
The event will focus on the Archimedes Palimpsest, a 10th-century manuscript that includes the only surviving copies of some of Archimedes' works, Graham said.
He said the book shows Archimedes was close to developing calculus, which wasn't discovered until the 17th century by Isaac Newton.
William Noel, curator of manuscripts and rare books at the Walters Museum, said the discovery of the Archimedes Palimpsest is forcing a change in the way scholars look at the history of ancient Greece.
"It gives us a fundamentally different understanding of how Archimedes approached the concept of infinity," Noel said.
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At some point in the book's history, the text was erased and it was used as a prayer book, Graham said.
"For (the scribes), the Archimedes text wouldn't have been so important because it was a classical text rather than a religious text," he said.
The Archimedes Project is a two-part venture that uses cutting edge technology to recover the erased text, Noel said.
A scientist at Stanford University developed a special scanner which uses a technique called x-ray florescence, Graham said.
"They've been able to use that on the most illegible pages of the Archimedes book," he said. "The special scanner can read through the paint and pick up traces of iron in the original erased ink and make it possible to read those traces of letters."
Thought the process is highly technical, the scientists presenting it are prepared to make the material understandable, Noel said.
"The people speaking on Saturday are very good at conveying what it is that they do in a clear and accessible manner," he said.
