A Danish research is world renowned for makingisotopic analyzes of textiles. The method reveals how people traveled andtraded for thousands of years ago. Now she helps the world's best silkresearchers to gain new knowledge of China's history.
（One of China's most famous mummies Yingpan-man from the 4th-5th century e.Kr found onthe China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou. (Photo: Karin Margarita Frei)）
Technologically, economically andintellectually, we lag after the Chinese, we often hear in the media, whichalso brings one feature after another on China's nationalism, lack of humanrights, horrible food, overcrowding and very strange culture.
Here comes another story: Many years and smoothly researcher collaborationsuggest that Danes and Chinese maybe not always as far apart as we might be ledto believe.
Videnskab.dk have met the Chinese professor Dr. Zhao Feng, when he met hisDanish collaborators at the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre forTextile Research in Copenhagen.
"We live in a globalized age where we need to work together acrossborders, but in China, scientists have not had a tradition of having little todo with the West, partly because my generation grew up during Mao's culturalevolution, where we did not learn English, "says Dr. Zhao Feng, head ofthe world's largest silk museum China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou.
China needs international cooperation
Professor Dr. Zhao Feng is an exception: For years, he worked with foreignresearchers among others from Denmark, and in his time he studied at theMetropolitan Museum in New York. Currently he gets help from the Danish textileresearch center to gain new knowledge about the historical trade route known asthe Silk Road.
Younger Chinese forskerspirerer have also begun to open up to the outsideworld, he says.
"The new generation are increasingly traveling out to study in the UnitedStates and Europe. That's good, because even though China is large in size, weare not as developed. We still have much to learn. "
The internationalization of Danish research increases
Over the last decade there has been a significant development in theinternationalization of Danish research. Figures from the Research Barometer2010 and the Nordic Research shows, for example, increase in the share ofscientific publications in international cooperation:
1984-1988: 23 percent
1994-1998: 42 percent
2004-2008: 55 percent
The method of calculation is that at least one researcher is based in Denmarkand at least one researcher living abroad.
In the same period, the focus on elite research increased and the DanishNational Research Foundation Center of Excellence by the Centre for TextileResearch is among, have helped to increase internationalization.
Danish help to analyze silk
Although Dr. Zhao Feng's museum specializes in ancient silk and is a globalleader when it comes to analysis of several thousand year old silkestofferscolors and structures can Centre for Textile Research something that theprofessor would love to learn:
Centre researcher, postdoc Karin Margarita Frei, is known throughout the worldfor having developed a method for finding prehistoric textiles origin. She doesso by making analyzes of the strontium isotope textile values.
Strontium isotopes talks about past societies
Strontium (Sr) is a chemical element, which so closely resembles calcium thatliving organisms treat the two drugs almost identical. The Human Body recordersuch as strontium in the bones as a substitute for calcium.
The substance found in plants, soil and water and is led to animals and humansthrough food and drink. Scientists have long made analysis of strontiumisotopes in Mummies bones and teeth. By comparing mummies strontium isotopevalues ??with the composition of strontium isotopes in different geographiclocations, scientists can track how the mummified people once lived andraised.
"The knowledge strontium isotope analysis gives us about how yourancestors migrated and left, telling us about the prehistoricsamfundsdynamikker and we can see if there has been a social and societalrelations between different geographical areas. The background is the basis forthe society we have today, and it has made us what we are, so it is importantthat we are doing it, "said Karin Margarita Frei, who specializes inarcheometry.
The world's first strontium isotope analysis of textiles
Wool, linen and other textiles made from organic material also containsstrontium. As the first in the world use Karin Margarita Frei the analyticalmethods hitherto used skeletons to determine how prehistoric clothes, forexample, is found in oak coffins from the Danish Bronze Age graves are made. Onthe way, she finds and colleagues out if past people have traveled and tradedwith people from other countries.
"For the first time, you can make strontium isotope analysis of textiles.It's got a lot of attention worldwide, because it is the first time we have amethod that can say something about how archaeological textiles raw materialscome from, "says Karin Margarita Frei.
By making strontium isotope analyzes of wool from ancient times, she andcolleagues among others found out that Denmark already 2,000 years ago was withwool also outside the country.
Silk is a very special material
（Researchersfrom the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou preserves silk. (Photo: KarinMargarita Frei)）
"The Chinese are very interested indeveloping a method so that they can make strontium isotope analyzes of theirancient silk fabrics but silk is a completely different type of fiber than wooland linen, so we can not simply use the method we have used for the Danisharchaeological textiles, "explains Karin Margarita Frei.
'Prehistoric silk is very fragile and valuable, so we have to start fromscratch and develop a new method that we can test modern silk. Only then can wedevelop the method of prehistoric silk, "she continues.
Strontium is a trace element which is to say that it is present only in verysmall amounts in the fabrics. Karin Margarita Frei and his colleagues need tobe sure that there is enough of it in small quantities of silk, they areallowed to explore when working with irreplaceable archaeological material.
"We have to discard all other elements from, so there is only strontiumback. It is a very difficult process that requires time and expertise,"says Karin Margarita Frei.
The Chinese are silk experts
Karin Margarita Frei has repeatedly got prestigious awards and grants for hiswork. For example, she received the 2012 UNESCO For Women in Science just toexplore the possibilities for analyzing strontium isotopes in modern silk, andin 2009, she was named elite research .
For four years she has shared knowledge and worked with Zhao Fheng and hiscolleagues from the Silk Museum in Hangzhou. Despite the geographical distance,cooperation so well that the two research groups have plans in the future touse each other's laboratory facilities.
"We use each other's expertise to get a dimension on. Researchers at theSilk Museum in Hangzhou has exceptional knowledge of color analysis and silkfibers. On the other hand, we have the only laboratory in the world that makestrontium isotope analyzes of textiles, "says Karin Margarita Frei.
Laboratory of strontium isotope analysis with facilities to analyze textilesfound at the Danish Centre for Isotope Geology, Department of Earth Sciencesand Natural Resource Management at the University of Copenhagen.
"At the start of the Chinese researchers plan to do a lab like ours, butnow they have realized that we should not have two similar laboratories. It isbetter that they use our expertise and laboratory. You can not do everything,so we share our research, "says Karin Margarita Frei.
Strontium isotope values ??across China to be mapped
Making strontium isotope analyzes of ancient Chinese silk is a comprehensiveproject because it requires geologists and geochemists maps the strontiumisotope values ??everywhere in China. Karin Margarita Frei know the process,along with Robert Frei, a professor of geochemistry, she has created a map thatshows the distribution of strontium isotopes in the Danish countryside.
But Denmark covers an area of ??only approx. 42,000 km2, while China has over 9million km2.
"It took 2-3 years to make the map of strontium isotope ratios in plantsand lakes everywhere in Denmark, so it comes naturally to take much longer inChina. It is a complicated process and there are numerous factors you shouldconsider. For example, the latest research that may have come strontium withdust, for example, from volcanic eruptions, which may have altered the factthat originally, "says Karin Margarita Frei.
Still, it pays to make a map of how strontium isotope ratios are in differentgeographic locations in China, land is the world's third largest country.
"With such a map, we can learn a lot about historic trade routes,including on the famous Silk Road. It can also be used for various purposes -for instance by today's garment to trace the origin of textiles, "saysKarin Margarita Frei.
Danes and Chinese moves quickly
As Videnskab.dk met Karin Margarita Frei and Zhao Feng in Danish Centre forTextile Research facilities in Amager, they agreed on most things. Both saidthat their research groups have similar work mentality in the sense that theymove quickly when they've got an idea for a new joint project. Thecollaboration is rewarding and smoothly, they say.
"Denmark is the only country in the world where there is a research centerspecializing in archaeological textiles, such as the Centre for TextileResearch in 2009 came to visit in Hangzhou, we quickly agreed to enter into apartnership. Since then we have constantly exchanged ideas and we have made anumber of projects together. It is always the case that one of our projectsgenerates a new, "said Zhao Feng.
"Our cooperation is driven by curiosity, and it is essential that it hasemerged from below and not from above. Our government has the ambition thatChinese scientists will work with researchers from other countries, but if it'ssomething like that is pressed down on us from above, it works hardly as goodas our cooperation've done, "he continues .
Important to be globally oriented
The globally-oriented Chinese professor has started an exchange program, sothat students at his museum will have the opportunity to be inspired byresearchers in other parts of the world, just as he has been.
"I think a lot about the next generation of scientists, I would like tohave in my museum. If you really need to be challenged on its values ??andknowledge, it is necessary to go abroad, "said Zhao Feng.
Global orientation, good will and curiosity is not the only thing that keepsthe Sino-Danish cooperation going. The two teams are fortunate that they bothhave had sufficient funds to be flexible and constantly putting new projects,emphasizing the two researchers.
Originated from: http://videnskab.dk/kultur-samfund/enestaende-dansk-teknik-kan-give-kinesere-ny-viden-om-deres-forhistorie
