The Shroud of Turin’s Improbable Body Image

If one were tasked with designing an image which is both maximally hard to explain, yet where the conservation of energy, momentum etc. are to operate as usual, the Turin Shroud’s body image might well be the result. Peer reviewed explanations for the image that comport with the conservation laws include medieval manufacture, electrical corona and discoloration either by chemical reactions or on account of the decay of a radioactive isotope naturally present in linen. Based on the requirement that any creditable origination scenario must account for the microscopic characteristics of the body image, we argue that medieval manufacture and discoloration during a corona discharge are untenable. The former because of the inaccessibility of fibers buried in parent threads, the necessity of discoloring fibers all the way around their circumference to a precise depth, and finally because of the immense number of fibers involved. In the latter case it appears that the assertion that corona can penetrate linen producing an image with microscopic structure similar to that of the Shroud’s is based on the misinterpretation of a photomicrograph. The alternatives, chemical reactions and radioactive decays, are improbable in the extreme. Chemical reactions, because of the large numbers of such reactions required to discolor a flax fiber running along a thread top and because fibers running on either side of discolored fibers are frequently entirely clear of discoloration. Disruption due to radioactive decays with the consequent formation of color centers along a fiber is also hugely improbable due to the extraordinarily long half-life of rubidium 87, a radioactive isotope found in the primary cell walls of plants.