he pores over bits of herculaneum scrolls at the naples library. papyri every day. >> whitaker: call it academic competition, call it ego, but american brent seales, ranocchia the papyrologist and italian physicist mocella became fierce competitors, all fighting to make history as the first to reveal the contents of the scrolls-- a gladiatorial wrestling match in the hallowed halls of the ivory tower. ranocchia accuses mocella of sabotaging his research. seales is convinced the italians poached his idea to use the synchrotron. the mystery of the scrolls is playing out like some tragic italian opera. >> seales: you know, they say, bill, that the reason academics argue is because the stakes are so low. right? the stakes actually are really high if you think about the possibility of revealing these manuscripts to the world from 2,000 years ago that no one's ever read. and, okay, so, now, we're going to argue with each other? really? i mean, maybe we could do that later, after we've read them. >> whitaker: but the two italian rivals used their european