Over recent years we’ve been treated to a series of fascinating advances in the world of x-ray imaging, as researchers have developed their x-ray microtomography techniques and equipment to the point ...

Hundreds of years ago, people developed ingenious methods to secure their letters from prying eyes – and they did it with only paper, adhesive and folds. Late at night on 8 February 1587, an ...

In a steady, stately script, an anonymous Dutch writer living around 1700 wrote a letter: “I never thought you’d be such a miserable dog,” it went. “If you’ve got something to say, just say it to my ...

On the eve of her execution in 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots wrote what is thought to be her very last letter. She had been imprisoned for nearly 20 years for the perceived threat she represented to ...

The Brienne trunk contained hundreds of unopened letters. Thie one features a gold wax seal. For years, Jana Dambrogio, a conservator at MIT, has been studying the elaborate ways people used to fold ...

Mary, Queen of Scots used a “spiral locking” technique to seal the last letter she wrote before her execution, indicating that she wanted the contents to remain secret, according to research published ...

The letters had been folded using a mysterious technique. This is an Inside Science story. Unopened letters more than 300 years old that were folded using mysterious techniques have now been read for ...

Recent research highlights the use of letterlocking techniques by Queen Elizabeth, Catherine de’ Medici and Mary Queen of Scots. By William J. Broad To safeguard the most important royal ...

Centuries before encrypted texts and secure video conferencing, people relied on physical engineering to keep their written messages sturdy, sealed, and secure against eavesdroppers. In a new book, ...

Keys: How to Use this Book -- Introduction to Letterlocking -- Building the Story of Letterlocking -- Reading Letterlocking Features -- Locking Mechanisms, Security, and Authentication -- Distinctive ...

You probably get a few of these things each week in the mail. And some of them actually do a good job of obscuring the contents inside, even if you hold the envelope up to the light. But have you ever ...