Neutron flux #35
This is "Neutron flux," part #35 of my Turin Shroud Encyclopedia, which will help me write chapter 16, "Were the laboratories duped by a hacker?," of my book in progress, "Shroud of Turin: Burial Sheet of Jesus!" See 06Jul17, 03Jun18, 04Apr22, 13Jul22, 8 Nov 22 & 20Jun24.
[Previous: Science and the Shroud (1) #34] [Next: To be advised].
This post was originally a news item in my Shroud of Turin News for September - December 2024. But it grew too long, so I extracted that news item and have reposted it here. My words are in [bold square brackets] to distinguish them from the news articles' words. There are a lot of "RTB's" (references to be provided) in this post, which I haven't had time to find refererences for. I have updated almost all of it, since my Shroud of Turin News post, so it would be worth reading all of it.
"Nuclear engineer says latest research confirms first-century date of 
[Right (enlarge): The radioactive isotopes chlorine-36 (Cl-36) and calcium-41 (Ca-41), and stable isotope chromium-53 (Cr-53), that according to Mark Antonacci's Neutron Flux Theory should still be detectable on the Shroud. See 01Nov13]
Shroud of Turin," 28 September 2024, Martin Barillas. For centuries Christians have attributed a first-century date to the Shroud of Turin. Nuclear engineer Robert Rucker says that his latest research on the shroud verifies that. "The Shroud of Turin is the second-most valuable possession of the human race next to the Bible itself," Rucker told CNA.[Agreed!] The shroud is currently preserved in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud adjacent to St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin (Torino), Italy. For more than 10 years, Rucker has studied the physics of the disappearance of the body of Jesus and its imprint on the shroud. His website, Shroud Research, challenges conclusions that the shroud dates to the period of 1260 to 1380 A.D., leading skeptics to conclude it is a medieval fake. ... In 1988, scientists used tiny samples snipped from the shroud to determine the amount of carbon 14 isotopes they contained, destroying the samples in the process. The radioactive carbon 14 isotope is a variant of carbon-containing excess neutrons, which are particles smaller than atoms. Over time, carbon 14 decays into nitrogen 14 in organic materials such as bone and plant matter. The ratio of carbon 14 atoms remaining in a sample provides the data needed to estimate the sample's age. Rucker said his calculations show that the 1988 carbon 14 dating is erroneous because it does not take into account the radiation emitted from Jesus' body at the resurrection, which included neutrons that were absorbed by the shroud and formed new carbon 14 atoms, thus leading to a misinterpretation of the data ... " [I have not studied Rucker's or Antonacci's Neutron Flux Theory, which attempts to explain why the 1260-1390 radiocarbon date of the Shroud was wrong. So the following are my generic criticisms of the theory (see also 23Jul15). This will help me write chapter 16, "Were the laboratories duped by a hacker?," of my book in progress, "Shroud of Turin: Burial Sheet of Jesus!" See 06Jul17, 03Jun18, 04Apr22, 13Jul22, 8 Nov 22 & 20Jun24.• No Biblical support While there is Biblical support for the Light Radiation Theory (see 25Oct24), there is none for the Neutron Flux Theory. Paul, on the topic of the resurrection of Christians' bodies, taught "we shall all be changed" when "this perishable body must put on the imperishable" (1Cor 15:51-53) and Jesus, at his return "will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body" (Php 3:20-21 ). In his resurrection body Jesus could pass through walls (Jn 20:19, 26), and instantly appear and disappear (Lk 24:31, 36)[AM00, 235; OM10, 244]. Clearly Jesus' resurrection involved a qualitative change of his earthly body, not a quantitative change (for the worse - see) to it that the mere removal of neutrons would be.
• Source of the neutrons According to the Neutron Flux Theory, the source of the neutron flux is the resurrecting body of Jesus[AM00, 159; AM16, 100;CW20, 87]. About 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus[CHB]. Oxygen has 8 neutrons, carbon has 6, hydrogen 0, nitrogen 7, calcium 20, and phosphorus 16[PNE]. If each element, excepting hydrogen which doesn't have any neutrons, loses 1 neutron, it becomes respectively: oxygen-15 (which has a half-life of ~2 minutes and decays to nitrogen-15), carbon-11 (with a half-life of ~20 minutes and decays to boron-11), nitrogen-13 (which has a half-life of ~10 minutes and decays to carbon-13), calcium-39 which decays instantly to potassium-39), and phosphorus-30 (which has a half-life of ~2.5 minutes and decays to silicon-30). The loss of oxygen, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus atoms would likely be incompatible with human life, depending on how many neutrons are lost from them. And it would not be a valid explanation that it didn't matter if Jesus' resurrection body was not viable as a human body. The risen Jesus went out of his way to impress on his disciples that his resurrection body was still a human body. To the two disciples on the road to Emmaus he told them to see and touch his hands and feet, with their nail wounds, to confirm that his resurrected body was not "a spirit" but was still "flesh and bones"(Lk 24:39). To the disciples in a locked Jerusalem room, Jesus showed them the wounds in his hands and side and even asked Thomas to feel them (Jn 20:19-20; 26-27). The Council of Chalcedon (451), the fourth ecumenical council of the united Christian Church, ruled that Jesus was "perfect in manhood"[CCW]. But a risen Jesus with a great many of his neutrons missing, would definitely not be perfect in manhood (to put it mildly)!
• No nitrogen in cellulose The Neutron Flux Theory claims that a neutron flux in Jesus' tomb converted nitrogen-14 in the Shroud into carbon-14, shifting the radiocarbon date of the first-century Shroud ~thirteen centuries into the future to 1325 +/- 65 or 1260-1390[GH96, 264; WI98, 7; OM10, 60-61; DT12, 170]. But there is no nitrogen in cellulose which comprises the Shroud's linen[CFW]. The chemical 
[Left (enlarge): Cellulose molecular structure [CDL].
formula of cellulose is (C6H10O5), so cellulose consists only of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in repeating molecular chains[CLW]. The Neutron Flux Theory therefore claims that that the nitrogen in the Shroud's air spaces was converted to carbon-14 by a neutron flux generated by Jesus' resurrection[AM00, 160, 162]. But even if that was true, the carbon-14 in the Shroud's air spaces would not become part the Shroud's cellulose fibres[RTB]. And when each Shroud sample was reduced to pure carbon by converting it to carbon dioxide and then converting that gas into pure carbon as graphite[SH88, 140; IJ98, 163], as a preliminary to radiocarbon dating it[PM96, 84; IJ98, 162-163], anything in the sample that was not carbon within the Shroud's cellulose would be excluded from the radiocarbon dating process[RTB]. So the Neutron Flux Theory does not work[RTB]!
• Would add neutrons to cellulose atoms The same neutron flux which the Neutron Flux Theory claims would add a neutron to an atom of nitrogen-14 in the Shroud's air spaces and convert it to an atom of carbon-14[RTB], would also add a neutron to atoms in the Shroud's cellulose fibre molecules[RTB]. Specifically one or more of the 6 carbon-12 atoms in each of the Shroud's millions of cellulose molecules would likely be converted to carbon-13[RTB]. One or more of the 10 hydrogen-1 atoms in each of the Shroud's cellulose molecules would likely be converted to deuterium-2[RTB]. And one or more of the 5 oxygen-16 atoms in each of the Shroud's cellulose molecules would likely be converted to oxygen-17[RTB]. The likely effect on the chemical bonds: -O- x 3, -OH x 2 and -CH2OH x 1, would be the disintegration of that cellulose molecule[RTB]. Particularly since the sudden arrival of a neutron from a nearby neutron flux into the nucleus of a cellulose atom would likely be energetic[RTB]. This would have happened many millions of times across the Shroud, if the Neutron Flux Theory was true. In which case the Shroud fabric would likely have disintegrated in the first century! That it hasn't, and the opposite is true: the Shroud has been closely examined many times and found to be in "good condition"[AM00, 109, 160; DT12, 114; ]">WI79, 21; WM86, 2; GV01, 55; DT12, 13; WI10, 21], and "the fiber showed no signs of disintegration" (my emphasis)[WI79, 21] is a falsificaton of the Neutron Flux Theory! Neutron Flux theorists can't have it both ways: the neutron flux emitted by Jesus' resurrecting body converted millions of the Shroud's nitogen-14 atoms into carbon-14, yet it had little or no effect on the atoms in the Shroud's cellulose molecules!
Neutron flux would have killed the guards at the tomb A neutron flux strong enough to convert enough nitrogen-14 to carbon-14, to shift the Shroud's first-century radiocarbon date ~thirteen centuries into the future to 1325 +/-65 (1260-1390), would have killed the guards stationed outside the tomb (Mt 27:65-66). The guards would have been stationed around the circular rolling stone at the entrance of the tomb (Mt 27:60; Mk 15:46), which would have had a gap between it and the tomb entrance around its edges, so the full-force of any neutron flux in the tomb would have been experienced by the guards, unimpeded by the tomb's limestone (which wouldn't have been an impediment anyway since neutrons pass through buildings) . A neutron bomb creates a neutron flux which passes through a military tank's metal armour and kills its occupants[NBW]. They are killed by Neutron Activation which makes a body's ordinary chemicals radioactive:
"Neutron activation is the process in which neutron radiation induces radioactivity in materials, and occurs when atomic nuclei capture free neutrons, becoming heavier and entering excited states. The excited nucleus decays immediately by emitting gamma rays, or particles such as beta particles, alpha particles, fission products, and neutrons (in nuclear fission). Thus, the process of neutron capture ... often results in the formation of an unstable activation product. Such radioactive nuclei can exhibit half-lives ranging from small fractions of a second to many years. ... All naturally occurring materials, including air, water, and soil, can be induced (activated) by neutron capture into some amount of radioactivity in varying degrees, as a result of the production of neutron-rich radioisotopes. Some atoms require more than one neutron to become unstable, which makes them harder to activate ... Thus water is relatively difficult to activate, as compared to sodium chloride (NaCl), in which both the sodium and chlorine atoms become unstable with a single capture each" (my emphasis)[NAW].The guards were alive when an angel descended to roll back the large stone across the entrance of the tomb and announce to Jesus' women disciples who had come to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body (Mt 28:1; Mk 16:1; Lk 23:55-24:1; Jn 20:1), that Jesus had been resurrected (Mt 28:1-6; Mk 16:1-6; Lk 24:1-6]). For fear of the angel the guards became like dead men (Mt 28:1-4). This must have been a paralysis, not unconsciousness, because the guards heard the angel's announcement that Jesus had been resurrected, since after the women had left the tomb, the guards recovered and some of them went into Jerusalem and told the chief priests "all that had taken place" (Mt 28:11-13). The guards evidently were unaware until the angel's announcement that Jesus had been resurrected inside the tomb, and so they had not heard, nor felt, any neutron flux from inside the tomb, which they surely would have, if they were not killed instantly by it! Which means that there was no neutron flux inside Jesus' tomb!
Neutron flux would have killed the disciples who went inside the tomb soon after Jesus' resurrection The women disciples, and the Apostles Peter and John, who went into the tomb soon after Jesus' resurrection (Mt 28:1-6; Mk 16:1-6; Lk 23:56-24:3; Jn 20:1-8), would likely have been killed by the residual radioactivity inside the tomb. Jesus's tomb was limestone[AM00, 109, 160; DT12, 114; WI10, 66-67], which is mainly calcium cabonate (CaCO3)[AM00, 109; WI98, 106]. If the Neutron Flux Theory was true, the inside of Jesus' tomb would have been filled with residual radioactive calcium, carbon and oxygen!! Yet one of the women, Mary Magdalene, ran from the tomb to tell Peter and John that Jesus' body was not in it (Jn 20:1-2). And Peter and John were still alive and well 2-3 years later when in Acts 8:14 they were together sent by the Jerusalem church to minister to the new Christian converts in Samaria! So agaimn there was no neutron flux inside Jesus' tomb!
Tests of the Neutron Flux Theory Mark Antonacci (1949-) has claimed that if the first-century Shroud's 1260-1390 radiocarbon date was caused by a neutron flux at the resurrection of Jesus, which converted nitrogen-14 into carbon-14, the Shroud would contain the following isotopes that are rare, or non-existent, in nature:
"... STURP scientists discovered that calcium (along with strontium and iron) was distributed uniformly throughout the Shroud, probably as a result of the retting process when the cloth was originally manufactured. Almost 97 percent of all calcium consists of calcium-40 (Ca-40); the other 3.1 percent consists of Ca-42, 43, 44, 46, and 48. Conspicuously absent is Ca-41, which does not occur naturally. However, if a neutron flux had irradiated the Shroud, it would convert the Ca-40 in the cloth to Ca-41. If Ca-41 were found on the Shroud, it would confirm that the cloth had been irradiated with neutrons. Since calcium has been found distributed uniformly over the Shroud, any portion of the original doth could be examined for the presence of Ca-41"[AM00, 186; 01Nov13a].This is substantially correct. Calcium-41 is found in nature, but only "in the upper metre of the soil column," because it is only created on Earth by nuclear fluxes from outer space:
"Calcium also has a cosmogenic isotope, 41Ca, with half-life 99,400 years. Unlike cosmogenic isotopes that are produced in the air, 41Ca is produced by neutron activation of 40Ca. Most of its production is in the upper metre of the soil column, where the cosmogenic neutron flux is still strong enough"[ICW]
"In addition, when STURP scientists made X-ray fluorescence measurements on thirteen threads that had been removed from the Raes sample, they detected small traces of chlorine. [Schwalbe, L.A. & Rogers, R.N. "Physics and Chemistry of the Shroud of Turin," Analytica Chimica Acta 135 (1982): 3-49,47.] If a neutron flux irradiated the Shroud, it would convert chlorine-35 (Cl-35), found naturally, to chlorine-36 (Cl-36). Like Ca-41, Cl-36 does not occur naturally. As stated by Thomas Phillips in the scientific journal Nature, `The presence of either [Ca-41 or Cl-36] would confirm that the Shroud had been irradiated with neutrons'" [Phillips, 1989, p.594]."[AM00, 188 01Nov13b].Schwalbe & Rogers actually reported that only "smaller traces" of chlorine were detected in the threads:
"In addition, they [the threads] showed smaller traces of potassium, chlorine, and possibly lead"[SR82, 47]This looks like a failure of a test for chlorine-36 on the Shroud. Because if there are only traces of ordinary chlorine-35 on the Shroud, a neutron flux would not likely convert enough chlorine-36 to be measurable.
• Carbon-14 in blood:
"Moreover, if the Shroud was irradiated with neutrons, it could have affected the blood in another significant way. The solid part of dried blood contain mostly proteins, which typically contains about 12 percent nitrogen by weight. This is a much larger amount of nitrogen than is found in cloth. If a neutron flux irradiated the blood on the cloth, it could convert the nitrogen-14 (N-14) into C-14 on a much larger scale than it would convert in cloth. As such, the blood would carbon date to a much younger date than the cloth. In fact, it could easily date well into the future"[AM00, 188-189 01Nov13c].
This sounds like an admission that there was not enough nitrogen-14 in the Shroud's fibres for a neutron flux to convert to carbon-14 and account for its 1260-1390 radiocarbon date! Otherwise, why not simply propose that the Shroud's linen fibres be tested for carbon-14? And as we saw above the Shroud's blood is not included in radiocarbon dating of the Shroud's cellulose fibres. Also, as mentioned in my 2013 post, the Vatican is unlikely to ever approve the radiocarbon dating of the Shroud's blood.
As I also mentioned in my 2013 post re Antonacci's proposal that the Shroud be tested for the isotopes calcium-41, chlorine-36 and chromium-53, which would confirm the Neutron Flux Theory, it is very unlikely that the Vatican would approve a test requested by individuals. However, it may be that Antonacci and Rucker's request would be included in a future suite of scientific tests of the Shroud proposed by a broad consensus of Shroud scholars. Or it may that threads from the Shroud, which exist apart from it, could be tested for those isotopes without involving the Archdiocese of Turin or the Vatican. If either were to happen, I predict that the Neutron Flux Theory would fail that test, for the above reasons.
• Does not explain the Shroud's 1260-1390 radiocarbon date Finally, the Neutron Flux Theory does not explain why a neutron flux from Jesus' resurrection converted nitrogen-14 in the Shroud to carbon-14, which `just happened’ to shift the first century radiocarbon date of the Shroud thirteen centuries into the future, to the `bull's eye’ 1325 +/- 65 years radiocarbon date! Which `just happens' to be exactly 30 years before the Shroud first appeared in undisputed history at Lirey, France, in 1355! As the physicist Frank Tipler (1947-) pointed out, it "would be an extraordinary and very improbable coincidence if the amount of carbon added to the Shroud were exactly the amount needed to give the date that indicated a fraud"[TF07, 178]. But that is what the Neutron Flux Theory is either claiming, or ignoring. Only my Hacker Theory (and Tipler's Supernatural Deceptive Miracle by God Theory) explains that!
Notes:
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission to extract or quote from any part of it (but not the whole post), provided the extract or quote includes a reference citing my name, its title, its date, and a hyperlink back to this page. [return]
Bibliography
AM00. Antonacci, M., 2000, "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY.
AM16. Antonacci, M., 2016, "Test The Shroud: At the Atomic and Molecular Levels," Forefront Publishing Company: Brentwood TN.
CCW. "Council of Chalcedon," Wikipedia, 4 January 2025.
CHB "Composition of the human body," Wikipedia, 28 December 2024.
CDL "Cellulose: A Plant’s Building Block," Duluth Labs, 2016
CLW "Cellulose," Wikipedia, 30 December 2024.
CFW "Cellulose fiber," Wikipedia, 3 January 2025
CW20. Chiang, R.G. & White, E.M., eds, 2020, "Science, Theology and the Holy Shroud: Edited papers from the 2019 International Shroud Conference," Doorway Publications, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada.
DT12. de Wesselow, T., 2012, "The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection," Viking: London.
GH96. Gove, H.E., 1996, "Relic, Icon or Hoax?: Carbon Dating the Turin Shroud," Institute of Physics Publishing: Bristol UK.
IJ98. Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY.
ICW "Isotopes of calcium," Wikipedia, 6 November 2024.
NAW "Neutron activation," Wikipedia, 11 September 2024.
NBW "Neutron bomb," Wikipedia, 25 November 2024.
OM10. Oxley, M., 2010, "The Challenge of the Shroud: History, Science and the Shroud of Turin," AuthorHouse: Milton Keynes UK.
PM96. Petrosillo, O. & Marinelli, E., 1996, "The Enigma of the Shroud: A Challenge to Science," Scerri, L.J., transl., Publishers Enterprises Group: Malta.
PNE. "Protons Neutrons & Electrons for All Elements," The Chemical Elements, 2025.
RR20. Rucker, R., 2020, "The Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud is Explained by Neutron Absorption," in CW20, 87-100.
RTB. Reference(s) to be provided.
SH88. Sox, H.D., 1988, "The Shroud Unmasked: Uncovering the Greatest Forgery of All Time," Lamp Press: Basingstoke UK.
SR82. Schwalbe, L.A. & Rogers, R.N., 1982, "Physics and Chemistry of the Shroud of Turin: A Summary of the 1978 Investigation," Analytica Chimica Acta, No. 135, 3-49.
TF07. Tipler, F.J., 2007, "The Physics of Christianity," Doubleday: New York NY.
WM86. Wilson, I. & Miller, V., 1986, "The Evidence of the Shroud," Guild Publishing: London,.
WI79. Wilson, I., 1979, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised edition.
WI98. Wilson, I., 1998, "The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence that the World's Most Sacred Relic is Real," Simon & Schuster: New York NY.
WI10. Wilson, I., 2010, "The Shroud: The 2000-Year-Old Mystery Solved," Bantam Press: London.
Posted 20 January 2025. Updated 21 January 2025.
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