Episode 28 - Fine art and floppy discs

What sorts of science and engineering challenges do museums have in looking after their collections? In this episode I explore how Imperial’s research into data science, polymers and lasers is being used to understand and preserve historical and archaeological objects.

In this episode my guests refer to two chests in the collections of the Victoria & Albert museum. The first is the Mazarin Chest with its Japanese lacquer surface. The results of the conservation of the lacquer have been published in Scientific Conservation. The second is a 17th century embroidered box. Vibrational modelling on this casket was carried out by Kerstin Kracht (Technical University of Berlin) to build a crate to allow this to be safely shipped overseas for display.