By IANS,
London : The restoration of a 2,000-year-old bronze sculpture of Greek athlete Apoxyomenos may help scientists understand how to prevent metal corrosion and discover the safest ways to permanently store nuclear waste, says a new study.
The conclusion is based on a new study on the so-called “bio-mineralization” of Apoxyomenos. Best known as “The Scraper,” the statue depicts an athlete scraping sweat and dust from his body with a small curved instrument.
Bio-mineralization is the process in which animals and plants use minerals from their surroundings to form shells and bone. Apoxyomenos was encrusted with such deposits.
In the report, researchers Davorin Medakovic and colleagues point out that Apoxyomenos was discovered in 1998 on the floor of the Adriatic Sea.
While the discovery was a bonanza for archaeologists and art historians, it also proved to be an unexpected boon to scientists trying to understand bio-mineralization, said a release of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
“As studies of long-term bio-fouled man-made structures are limited, the finding of an ancient sculpture immersed for two millennia in the sea provided a unique opportunity to probe the long-term impact of a specific artificial substrate on bio-mineralizing organisms and the effects of bio-corrosion,” the report said.
These findings appeared in the current issue of ACS’ Crystal Growth & Design.