The Poison Book Project examines antique books for heavy metal pigments — including mercury, lead and arsenic — commonly used in Victorian bookbinding.
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Old materials are really cool, because they're often loaded with poisons and carcinogens. You can often date how old a pre-Renaissance painter is at death by how much lead is in their skeletal bones. Humans managed to find some dangerous substances to make our world out of in the past.
It was so exciting when Melissa and the photographer showed up at 4pm like “Uh, can we take some photos for a story in WaPo that’s publishing TOMORROW??” 😂
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It had one of the few remaining copies of the Bible written in Hebrew
Along with other significant works