Raman spectroscopy finds rickets disease in Tudor sailors

Daily Mail : Bones and artifacts from an almost 500-year-old shipwreck are now being analyzed using Raman spectroscopy and DNA analysis. When Henry VIII’s flagship Mary Rose sank in battle on 19 July 1545, more than 400 men, and one dog, died. The wreck settled into the muddy bottom on the floor of the Solent, the strait separating the Isle of Wight from mainland England. It lay there preserved until October 1982, when it was raised and an ambitious conservation effort begun. Over the next three decades, the ship’s hull underwent constant spraying with millions of liters of water and wax chemicals to preserve it. In addition, bones of the sailors who perished on board have been examined. One thing the researchers discovered was that many of the sailors appear to have suffered from metabolic bone disease, such as childhood rickets.