A painting that was once a masterpiece can lose its ___1___ after centuries of exposure to the elements. Its true hues may become ___2___ by grime and even buildups of salt. But now researchers in Spain are cleaning works of art with unlikely allies—bacteria.

Art restorers had been working on 17th century frescoes by Antonio Palomino in the church of Santos Juanes in Valencia. The paint was covered by salt crystals and gelatin glue. So the researchers headed to Italy to learn about a glue-munching bacteria. Then back in Spain, they trained a strain of Pseudomonas bacteria to preferentially ___3___ salt blooms.

They also figured out a new way to apply the bacteria. The scientists trap the bacteria in a gel. This way, the single-celled cleaning crew can destroy the salt layer with no moisture penetrating the murals.

When the gel is cleaned off, the surface is quickly dried, leading to the ___4___ of the bacterial assistants. The researchers presented the results at a seminar in Spain.

They’re now working on ___5___ the technique, so that it can be used with paintings on various surfaces. And thus bring dulled and damaged works of art back to life.
【視聽(tīng)版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
glory obscured nibble demise refining
曾經(jīng)的油畫杰作若是暴露在自然環(huán)境下幾個(gè)世紀(jì)便會(huì)黯然失色。塵垢甚至是結(jié)鹽都可能模糊油畫的原始色彩。在現(xiàn)代清理油畫的過(guò)程中，西班牙的研究人員借助了令人意想不到的幫手——細(xì)菌。 工作人員一直在為巴倫西亞圣胡安大教堂中那幅17世紀(jì)安東尼帕洛米諾的畫作進(jìn)行復(fù)原工作。這幅油畫上覆蓋了一層鹽晶體和明膠，為此，研究人員專門趕赴意大利研究分解此類物質(zhì)的細(xì)菌?；氐轿靼嘌?，他們培養(yǎng)了一種假單胞菌來(lái)專門分解鹽花。 此外，他們還發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種使用這種細(xì)菌的新方法?？茖W(xué)家們將細(xì)菌植入膠體中，如此，假單胞菌就能夠在不讓水分滲入壁畫的同時(shí)分解鹽晶體。 膠體清理掉之后，油畫表面迅速恢復(fù)干燥，細(xì)菌好幫手也隨之“壽終正寢”了。研究人員在西班牙的某項(xiàng)研討會(huì)上公布了這項(xiàng)研究成果。 他們正努力改良這項(xiàng)技術(shù)以便在各個(gè)表面的油畫上都能得到應(yīng)用。灰頭土臉的藝術(shù)作品終于有希望重放異彩啦～