from Getty Conservation Institute -
Art as Evidence:The Scientific Investigation of Works of Art
go to web-page and video

A good overview of issues and possibilities with current technological advances in the examination of artworks. Even as technology surpass our understanding, the primary question remains: "For what ends?"
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from Tate Research -
Tate AXA Art Modern Paints Project (TAAMPP): 2006-2009 Research summary
go to Research Summary (PDF, 563 kB)

A summary of the extensive research into acrylic paints and how various conservation cleaning treatments affect the physical properties of acrylic paint films.
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from The New York Times -
Polaroid Lovers Try to Revive Its Instant Film
go to article
go to slide and audio show

Reviving the production of Polaroid films would be a certain hit with photographers and artists. However, it could also offer valuable lessons in a specific aspect of understanding how industrial production balances science with pragmatic concerns - something which heritage preservation could benefit from.
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from Scientific American 60-Second Science Blog -
Have scientists discovered Spider-Man's secret to superstrong silk?
go to blog post
go to scientific paper abstract
go to podcast

Reinforcing an already naturally strong material could have multiple uses, including "invisible" repair in some conservation treatments - if the threads last.
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from The Research Channel -
Reading the Unreadable
go to web-page

A nice video showcasing the use of advanced imaging technology and computer processing, whereby fragile documents could be "unrolled" virtually without having to subject the original material to physical stresses and handling.

link via ConsDist List.
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from The Los Angeles Times -
How old is that photo, really?
go to article

An update of an important on-going project at the Getty Conservation Institute which studies the material characteristics of photographs as they evolve over history - so as to better understand them. And the spin-off is to be able to authenticate and date actual historical photographs.

Also see earlier post here.
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from Scientific American -
How Old Is That Book? DNA May Hold the Answer
go to article

An interesting approach to dating unknown samples by cross-referencing with DNA signatures on parchment manuscripts with known dates. However, the practice of "recycling" earlier manuscripts for later use - by scrapping down and cutting manuscripts - would present problems in terms of dating the *later* creation.

See also earlier posts on other dating techniques for paper-related artefacts.
"Water pores reveal age of paper"
"Print Clock: A method for dating early books and prints"
"'Print Clock' Dates Antique Books"
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British Museum Techncal Research Bulletin
go to on-line journal

The British Museum has published in printed form their second volume of its Technical Research Bulletin. Articles from the first volume are now available, covering a wide-ranging .

Via ConsDist List.
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from The Harvard Crimson -
Novelist Funds Scientist Position
go to article

A rare but nonetheless significant gesture which hopefully could see more emulators. Though an esoteric subject ("Does conservation science really exists?"), the impact would certainly be useful in the long-term.
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from SEED Magazine -
In Defense of Difference
go to article

"Experts have long recognized the perils of biological and cultural extinctions. But they've only just begun to see them as different facets of the same phenomenon, and to tease out the myriad ways in which social and natural systems interact."

The increasing awareness of the inter-related nature of existence adds credence - and even urgency - to heritage and cultural preservation efforts. In essence, the point is not so much on the actual vestiges of culture that are preserved but to have a store of a range and variety of cultural expressions to guard against irreversible and total loss.

"It's the ability of a system — whether a tide pool or township — to withstand environmental flux without collapsing into a qualitatively different state that is formally defined as "resilience." And that is where diversity enters the equation. The more biologically and culturally variegated a system is, the more buffered, or resilient, it is against disturbance. [...] Homogeneous landscapes — whether linguistic, cultural, biological, or genetic — are brittle and prone to failure."

This adds yet another reason for heritage preservation to the one mentioned earlier.
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from Scientific American -
Sticky Science: Gecko Toes Key to Adhesive That Doesn't Lose Its Tackiness
go to article

from Technology Review -
Sticky Nanotape
go to article

from Discover -
Scientists Make a Super-Strong Nanotech Glue Modeled on Gecko Feet
go to article

A direct practical application - of the result from the study of gecko feet in the "invention" of a sticky tape that resembles closely it's versatile adhesion mechanism - could be in the field of cultural heritage preservation. In particular, in the display of fragile artefacts, such as fabric and textiles, whereby ensuring both the ease of removal and adequate strong support during display is of paramount concern. Looking forward to when this becomes a reality - and you read / heard it here first!
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from Emerging Technology -
Photo prize for virtual autopsies
go to article

An interesting development in the field of 3-dimensional imaging that first gathers data from a combination of different imaging techniques and then using software to merge and present these data in a composite but coherent image.

Such a technique would be useful in the investigation of enclosures and other inaccessible areas of a cultural artefact that might reveal invaluable information.
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from Nanoarchitecture.net -
Finding A Lost Painting
go to article

A video to accompany the story posted earlier here.


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from NIST Tech Beat -
NIST Studies How New Helium Ion Microscope Measures Up
go to article

An up-coming and promising improvement on microscopic (or should that be nano-scopic?) imaging. Cool...
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from Scientific Blogging -
Will Mona Lisa Smile More When She's Clean? The Science of Art Conservation
go to article

Quotable quote (from Tom Learner at GCI):

"One of the hardest decisions I’m having to make at the moment is, do we recommend that a lot of people pour a lot of resources into something like sausage casing or bread, which is never going to last as long as a marble sculpture?"

Which is the crux of the difficulty in efforts in preserving contemporary art - not so much the range and diversity of materials but the diversion of professional resources to research and care for something which deteriorates faster than one can understand it properly. At some point, tolerance of artistic freedom crosses over to become over-indulgence. No?

Link via Conservation DistList.
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from Discovery News -
Nuclear Physicists Fight Wine Fraud
go to article

Using high-end nuclear physics to characterise and compare glass used as wine bottles with known historic samples. And just a warning for would-be fraudsters, the wine itself will also be analysed using a method to detect and calculate radioactive decay (see earlier post).
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from BBC News -
X-rays reveal Van Gogh portrait
go to article
go to scientific paper

An interesting (but terribly expensive, surely) technique to use x-ray fluorescence mapping to create an image overlay.
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from The Art Newspaper -
Can past nuclear explosions help detect forgeries?
go to article

It seems like a poetic inversion to determine present-day forgeries using an indelible historic mistake of the modern era - that of the nuclear mushroom cloud. Picking up minute radioactive traces could indicate a post Second World War provenance. However, would the reverse be true - i.e. the absence of such radioactive traces be deterministic of a provenance that predates World War Two?
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from The Guardian -
Radio-carbon tests reveal true age of Rome's she-wolf - and she's a relative youngster
go to article

Perhaps an embarrassment for the discipline of art history - but it took the combined eye and mind of an art historian and restorer, Anna Maria Carruba, to make a case against the attribution of such an iconic statue which is now proven by scientific means.
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from The New York Times -
Microbes Eating Away at Pieces of History
go to article

Although not a new phenomena, the biodeterioration of stones is made worse in recent times:

" 'One of the recent discoveries that is of concern is that increased air pollution can sometimes increase biodeterioration,' said Eric Doehne, a scientist at the Getty Conservation Institute."

And sometimes, conservation treatment efforts unwittingly make things worse:

"Biodegradable polymers used to consolidate the stones of Mayan ruins in Mexico, for example, created conditions ripe for damaging microbes."

Control measures that were mentioned, included specially formulated biocides, anoxic treatment using Argon gas and goof old-fashion regular maintenance.
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