a method pioneered by University of Kentucky computer scientist W. Brent Seales was successfully used to unlock the text of a charred parchment from Israel, the En-Gedi Scroll. According to experts, this new method devised by Seales may make it possible to read the carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum. The virtual unwrapping process begins with using a volumetric scan to scan the damaged scroll. These scans are non-invasive, and generate a 3D mapping which differentiates between the ink and the paper. The virtual unwrapping process is independent of which type of volumetric scan is used, which allows scientists to test out different scanning methods to find which distinguishes ink from paper best and which easily accommodates scanning upgrades. The only data needed for the virtual unwrapping process is this volumetric scan, so after this point the scroll was safely returned to its protective archive. In the case of the Herculaneum papyri, the volumetric scan used X-ray phase-contrast tomography, which proved most beneficial for the study of ancient papyri in a feasibility test conducted in 2015. This method of volumetric scanning is most beneficial for the Herculaneum papyri because these papyri have carbon-based ink, which will have the same material characteristics as the carbon-based papyrus. This makes it difficult to image using many of the traditional imaging techniques, which often use differences in the light absorption/emission characteristics of different materials to create these volumetric scans. XPCT, on the other hand, examines the phase of x-ray radiation after it emerges from the scroll to determine its composition. Because the ink is raised relative to the papyrus, the radiation will be traveling in the material of the scroll slightly longer when it passes through a spot with ink than when it passes through a spot with a blank space. This means that when the radiation emerges from the paper, its phase will be slightly different than that of the empty space, allowing researchers to distinguish ink-covered spots from blank spots. While this technique does allow researchers to visualize places with ink, it is much less clear than techniques such as CT scans which distinguish between different materials because slight changes (thinner ink, thicker papyrus, folds in the papyrus) all contribute to noise in the volumetric scan. The volumetric scan allows the computer to associate the composition of the scroll with corresponding positions, called voxels or volume-pixels. The goal of the virtual unwrapping process is