![]() "It becomes covered with calcium carbonate, which is the same substance as marble and therefore binds, on a microscopic level, the various parts of the marble, creating more marble. "(The bacteria) doesn't pass through the marble but rather through the cracks, and it solidifies," Lugari explains. ![]() The resulting calcification strengthened the stone, with the enzymes applied multiple times a day over the course of two weeks. ![]() Its exterior was covered with enzymes, drawing the bacteria - which naturally reside within the marble - to the surface. The block in question served as a test for the rest of the monument. "Inside, there are billions of bacteria," he adds. Standing beneath the arch, Lugari points to a marble block weighing several metric tons. "So we needed to intervene with consolidation." "This marble was almost disintegrating it was turning to powder," he says. ![]() Now, conservator Alessandro Lugari and his colleagues are trying to salvage the city's treasures using a new technology - one that employs one of the oldest forms of life: bacteria. The Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum, for one, has the grime of 18 centuries caked onto its surface. Rome may be the eternal city, but its ancient artifacts are under unrelenting assault by the ravages of time, pollution, acid rain and the sweat and breath of millions of tourists. ![]()
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