Egypt. The ScanPyramid project, which involves the use of muon detectors to map the interior of the solid part of the Egyptian pyramids, is being launched (almost literally). The idea originated half a century earlier, with American physicist Luis Alvarez, a former member of the Manhattan Project, later founder and director of CERN, and also the discoverer, with his son, of the iridium layer (detected in Gubbio, Italy), the smoking gun of the Chixculub impact that killed the dinosaurs. This muon tomography (or muography) reveals a surprise in incredible detail: a huge chamber hidden just above the main corridor, with no access to other chambers or corridors, completely enclosed and isolated. The technique had already been used in Japan to create 3D maps of the interior of the magma chambers of Mount Asama and will also be used in Italy for Vesuvius and Etna.
