How do scientists keep America's founding documents preserved for the next hundreds of years?

We remove the oxygen, remove the air, and put argon in place.

It helps to prevent chemical reactions

that might affect the parchment surface,

possibly also the ink.

It's Tuesday, July 9thth and you're listening to Science Friday.

I'm Cyphrai producer Kathleen Davis.

The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and countless other documents are stored at the

National Archives in Washington, D.C.

There's a lot of science that goes into all these items preservation.

This past March in D.C. Ira Flato spoke with two scientists who do this behind the scenes work.

Let's take a listen.

Sarah Hawkey, senior conservator

at the National Archives and Mark Ornstein

Heritage Scientist at the National Archives.

Welcome to Science Friday, both of you.

Thank you.

Excited to be here.

Thank you.

Now the National Archives has 13 and a half mark billion pieces of paper.

That's right.

In its archives, that's billions with a bee.

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