Full-length image of the Shroud of Turin

The Shroud of Turin Research Project (often abbreviated as STURP) refers to a team of scientists which at the late 1970s early 1980s performed a set of experiments and analyses on the Shroud of Turin. STURP issued its final report in 1981.

The origins of the group go back to the experiments of physicist John P. Jackson, thermodynamicist Eric Jumper and photographer William Mottern in 1976. Using the ideas invented in aerospace science for building three dimensional models from images of Mars, Eric Jumper built initial devices to test the photographs of the Shroud of Turin. These were the first experiments relating to the shroud performed by scientists.^[1]

In March 1977, Jackson, Jumper and Mottern invited a few other scientists to join them to form a team for the analysis of the Shroud. The first meeting took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The group had no official sponsorship and the scientists funded their own activities. They also managed to arrange gifts and loans of technical equipment whose value was estimated at over $2 million.

Nuclear physicist Tom D'Muhala headed STURP. Apart from Jackson, Jumper and Motten the team included thermal chemist Raymond N. Rogers, and Roy London and Roger Morris, all from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Other team members included Don Lynn of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, biophysicist John Heller, photographers Ernest Brooks and Barrie Schwortz, optical physicist Sam Pellicori and electric power experts John D. German and Rudy Dichtl, as well as forensic pathologist Robert Bucklin. STURP included no experts on medieval art, archaeology or textiles.

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the shroud in Turin, it was displayed to the public in Turin from August 27 to October 8, 1978, with about 3 million visitors attending the exposition under bullet-proof glass. For the next 5 days after the exposition the STURP team analyzed the shroud around the clock at the royal palace adjoining Turing Cathedral, some scientists sleeping while others worked. A team of European scientists headed by Luigi Gonella supervised the activities.^[2] The team gathered sticky tape samples of material from several points on the surface of the shroud.^[3]

STURP team members continued their research after access to the shroud and published many of theirs results in scientific journals and proceedings.^[4][5] In 1981, in its final report, STURP wrote:.^[6]

"We can conclude for now that the Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist. The blood stains are composed of hemoglobin and also give a positive test for serum albumin. The image is an ongoing mystery and until further chemical studies are made, perhaps by this group of scientists, or perhaps by some scientists in the future, the problem remains unsolved."

STURP ended its activities in 1981.

References[link]

George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is a radio talk show host. In January 2003, following Art Bell's retirement, Noory took over as weekday host of the late-night radio talk show Coast to Coast AM, having previously been a guest host for the show.^[1]

Biography[link]

Noory grew up in Detroit with two younger sisters.^[1] He graduated from the University of Detroit in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in Communications.^[1] In 1996 he hosted a late-night program called Nighthawk.^[1]

Noory was president of Norcom Entertainment, Inc., a St. Louis-based company that developed and marketed video training films by television to law enforcement and security agencies nationwide.^[2]

Noory and his partners in Norcom Restaurants opened a restaurant, Cafe Marrakesh and Oasis Bar, in Brentwood, Mo. in 1987. The restaurant's theme revolved around a fictional Englishman named Col. William Berry, who opened a restaurant following an exciting secret mission to Marrakesh.^[3]

On-air style[link]

In an article about Noory published in the respected news magazine The Atlantic, Timothy Lavin wrote that "Noory can be an uneven broadcaster, sometimes seems to not pay full attention to his guests, offers strangely obvious commentary, and often lets clearly delusional or pseudoscientific assertions slide by without challenge."^[4] According to Media Life Magazine, "Noory says it doesn’t matter whether he believes what his callers and guests say. Ultimately, it's about entertainment, creating a show that people will be drawn to."^[5] Author and frequent Coast to Coast AM guest Whitley Strieber has commented on Noory's style, asserting "It's not that he's credulous or easily led. He's willing to take these intellectual journeys. He'll have guests on that you think are completely off the wall -- nothing they're saying is real -- but by the end of the program you will have made a discovery that there is a kernel of a question worth exploring."^[6]

Bibliography[link]

• Worker in the Light. Tor Books, 2006. ISBN 0-7653-1087-2. With William J. Birnes.
• Journey to the Light. Tor Books, 2009. ISBN 0-7653-2103-3. With William J. Birnes.
• Talking to the Dead. Tor Books, 2011. ISBN 0-7653-2538-1. With Rosemary Ellen Guiley.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: George Noory

• Coast to Coast AM
• Lavin, Timothy (January/February, 2010). "The Listener". The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/the-listener/7840/. Retrieved 2010-01-06.