News In Pictures

Cate Watson, Science Museum Library Assistant, inspects the Ripley scroll a very rare alchemical scroll that will be revealed in public for the first time in a new exhibition, Signs, Symbols, Secrets: An illustrated guide to Alchemy, that opens at the Science Museum in London on Friday. The 20 foot long scroll, discovered by Cate during preparations for the exhibition, is one of only 23 such scrolls known to exist in the world. (PA)