I think this is an incredibly cool use of new technology to improve upon the old.

Physicists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are using the same methods to search for the elusive Higgs Boson particle and to digitally restore audio recordings from the past. Berkeley Lab signed an agreement with the Library of Congress to digitize the many thousands of early blues or jazz recordings it has in its archives. And the results are spectacular. Compare for example, these two versions of "Good Bye Irene", before and after being optically reconstructed (WAV format, 18 and 19 seconds). This news release describes the method used by the physicists.

"We developed a way to image the grooves in a recording that is similar to measuring tracks in a particle detector," says Carl Haber, a senior scientist in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Physics Division, who developed the technology along with fellow Physics Division scientist Vitaliy Fadeyev.

Their work could ultimately enable the Library of Congress to digitize the thousands of blues, classical, Dixie, jazz, and spoken word recordings in its archives. The mass digitization of these aging discs and cylinders will both preserve the nation's musical history and make it accessible to a wide audience.

I'm thinking along the lines of archaeoacoustics.

The "deep waters of the unproven and often scorned?"

Why not?

"Lost" data can be recovered from hard drives, so imagine what other cool stuff there might be. (That's just given as an example; if there's anything good in there, I doubt we'll ever hear it. Nixon Library Executive Director John Taylor thinks it might help vindicate Nixon; I don't see how it could hurt the man at this point.)

(HT Justin Case.)

UPDATE: In light of this press release, I still doubt we'll ever hear the famous "gap."

On August 28, 2002, the second test tape was sent to participants. This test tape was recorded using blank .5-millimeter tape confiscated from the Nixon White House. It was recorded and erased at 15/16 inches per second (IPS) and contained speech similar in quality to the speech before and after the 18 ½-minute gap on Tape 342. None of the participants recovered any intelligible audio from the second test tape.

In accepting the recommendations of the panel, Mr. Carlin said, " I am fully satisfied that we have explored all of the avenues to attempt to recover the sound on this tape. The candidates were highly qualified and used the latest technology in their pursuit. We will continue to preserve the tape in the hopes that later generations can try again to recover the this vital piece of our history."

For press information, contact the National Archives Public Affairs Staff at 301-837-1700.