The primary problem in trying to study a mummy is that if you take the wrappings off, the body disintegrates before you can do much examination.  The idea for using a high-energy particle accelerator for the examination came after one of the co-curators, Essi Rönkkö, stumbled upon a fully intact mummy,

Sometimes, I don’t know why I did it. It makes me so angry and I tell myself that I was duped into it. but that is really not the truth. I really do know, I just have to think and remind myself, why I did it. I decided to take….a