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Preserving museum treasures from Old Masters to spacesuits

Daylong Symposium Thursday, August 24

A special daylong symposium at the 220th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, will focus on preserving museum treasures from Old Masters to astronauts' spacesuits. Highlights include:

• Building better time capsules -- Mary T. Baker, Ph.D., of Chemonics International will discuss building better time capsules to preserve historical artifacts for future generations. (The paper on this research, POLY 433, will be presented at 9 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 24, in the J.W. Marriott Hotel, Grand Salon I.)

• Is the world falling apart? -- From dolls to medical devices, museum plastics are deteriorating more rapidly than previously thought. Yvonne Shashoua of the National Museum of Denmark will discuss efforts to stop the damage. (The paper on this research, POLY 434, will be presented at 10:15 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 24, in the J.W. Marriott Hotel, Grand Salon I.)

• Spacesuits' fate up in the air -- Lisa A. Young of the National Air and Space Museum, part of the Smithsonian Institution, will discuss why spacesuits are at risk of being grounded due to the deterioration of their polymers -- and what can be done about it. (The paper on this research, POLY 435, will be presented at 11 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 24, in the J.W. Marriott Hotel, Grand Salon I.)

• Keep Mona Lisa smiling -- Charles Tumosa, Ph.D., of the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Materials Research and Education will discuss how chemists and curators are collaborating to halt the deterioration of Old Masters. (The paper on this research, POLY 452, will be presented at 2:35 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 24, in the J.W. Marriott Hotel, Grand Salon I.)

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A nonprofit organization with a membership of 161,000 chemists and chemical engineers, the American Chemical Society publishes scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences, and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

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