Angewandte Chemie issue & editorial on Heritage Science

Prestigious chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie has published a special virtual issue on heritage science, featuring numerous contributions from both SEAHA staff and students.

SEAHA deputy directory Prof Matija Strlic opens the issue with an editorial on the definition and future of the cross-disciplinary field, showing not only its deep routes in chemistry but also other physical and engineering sciences. Exploring the key facets of the discipline, Strlic outlines the outward-facing nature of heritage science, its impact beyond the domains of engineering and science, and the deeply social purpose of the field in its contribution to human understanding of identity and place. Furthermore, Strlic sees two broader challenges emerging from the journal’s articles, first understanding heritage ecologies and secondly the need to develop networked heritage ecosystems. The contributions will surely promote much discussion on both.

As a hub for the heritage science field, SEAHA is well represented in the issue. Student Hayley Simon authored a paper on her work with heritage partner the Mary Rose Trust, ‘A Synchrotron-Based Study of the Mary Rose Iron Cannonballs‘, and Laura Arcidiacono, also a student of the centre, was co-author on the paper ‘Egyptian Grave Goods of Kha and Merit studied by Neutron and Gamma Techniques‘.

Institute of Sustainable Heritage (ISH) alumna Rosie Brigham also published her work ‘Crowdsourcing as an Analytical Method: Metrology of Smartphone Measurements in Heritage Science‘ alongside co-author SEAHA supervisor Dr Josep Grau-Bove.

Lastly, SEAHA supervisor and ISH lecturer Dr Katherine Curran was first author on the paper ‘Classifying Degraded Modern Polymeric Museum Artefacts by Their Smell‘ which explores VOC emissions.

A landmark issue on a burgeoning field,  the Angewandte Chemie issue is a step towards an integrated definition of heritage science and undoubtedly will lead us to new and improved understandings of heritage.

Links

• Read on Heritage Science: A Future-Oriented Cross-Disciplinary Field
• Read the Virtual Issue on Heritage Science
• Read SEAHA articles within the issue
  • ‘A Synchrotron-Based Study of the Mary Rose Iron Cannonballs' by Hayley Simon
  • 'Egyptian Grave Goods of Kha and Merit studied by Neutron and Gamma Techniques‘ by Laura Arcidiacono
  • ‘Crowdsourcing as an Analytical Method: Metrology of Smartphone Measurements in Heritage Science‘ by Rosie Brigham
  • ‘Classifying Degraded Modern Polymeric Museum Artefacts by Their Smell‘ by Katherine Curran
• Prof. Matija Strlic