When working with historic texts, people are usually concerned about how they may harm the book, not how the book may harm them. Explore this post to learn about some 16-17th century books with potentially toxic components that were found in libraries at the Smithsonian Institute and the University of Southern Denmark. Continue reading Don’t lick your hands: Arsenic pigments used in 16-17th c. bookbinding

Archaeologists in Herculaneum, south of Italy, discovered a black, glassy material that turned out to be… a human brain. Continue reading A brain found in glass pieces

Historically, artists have used arsenic pigments, among other poisonous materials, since antiquity. Beautiful but deadly arsenic pigments were not only dangerous for the artists but also are dangerous for the objects: they can readily degrade and react with other components of the complex paint system, producing irreversible damage. Continue reading Deadly beautiful pigments: How arsenic sulfide pigment degradation affects the degradation of paintings

Non-invasive techniques are always at the forefront of a conservation scientist’s mind when working with historic artifacts. But how do we apply these techniques to stained glass windows? Check out this article about using MA-XRF as a first step for understanding the composition of medieval stained glass windows and how they were colored. Continue reading Distinguishing the composition of medieval stained glass windows using x-rays

Everyone has seen a fluorescent painting, but did you know fluorescence (or more-generally photoluminescence) is an effect that may be used to study cultural heritage? Fluorescence phenomena give information about a broad spectrum of materials in a non-invasive manner. Continue reading A fluorescent party: Fluorescence spectroscopy for non-invasive characterization of artwork

Analysis of dyes in textiles is particularly challenging given the complex nature of the mixtures used in their weaving. A novel separation method based on 2-Dimensional Liquid Chromatography shows promise for unraveling what illusive colorants lie within the weave.
Continue reading Untangling the complexity of dyes in historic textiles

Today, some of the most prominent contemporary artists are ditching their paintbrushes and pencils for biological matter like plants, animals, bacteria, and, even, human blood and skin. Wondering how these artworks will last? This post (and an upcoming symposium) will discuss the challenges, ethics, and methods of conserving these unconventional works. Image credit: moca.org Continue reading Decomposing art: How museum professionals treat living matter

Many paintings containing zinc white, such as Alchemy by Jackson Pollock, are slowly destroying themselves from the inside out! Continue reading Are oil paintings slowly eating themselves alive?

There is a hidden source of thousands of medieval documents in early-modern libraries waiting to be read again. These old manuscripts had been cut up and used to make bookbindings, thus hiding them from the human eye. How can macro-XRF be used to reveal these medieval texts? Continue reading 乘“新基建”东风 5G确定性网络加速发展:20 小时前 · 当前，我国明确提出加快5G网络、数据中心等新型基础设施建设（众下简称“新基建”）进度，“新基建”迅速刷屏。 作为“新基建”之首的5G不负众望，在网络建设、应用创新、产业支撑等方面取得了积极进展，基础电信企业建成5G基站超过25万个。

The analysis of dyes and lakes is a challenging task for conservation scientists. Nanoparticles and nanocomposites have become a powerful tool to increase the power of spectroscopic techniques, exemplified with SERS. This method not only improves the detection limit but also allows non-invasive analyses. Continue reading Nano-what? Silver nanoparticle gel for identifying pigments