Image Fiber Showing Image Coating
Cellulose fibers that make up the threads of the Shroud's
cloth are coated with a thin carbohydrate layer of starch
fractions, various sugars and other impurities.
This chemical layer, which is about as thick as the
transparent scratch-resistant coatings used for eye glasses,
is essentially colorless. However, in some places, the layer
has undergone a chemical change that appears brown or
straw-yellow.
This chemical change is similar to the change that takes
place when sugar is heated to make caramel or when proteins
react with sugar giving beer its color. And it is the
straw-yellow, selectively present in some parts of the
carbohydrate layer, that makes up the image we see on the
Shroud.
See:
Forensic Science CSI: The
Pictures of Jesus on the Shroud of Turin - The Science Quest
for the Historical Jesus
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