Drive-by conservation

A group of mobile conservation scientists are traveling Europe to study masterpieces of art. This mobile laboratory, known as MOLAB, is the brainchild of Bruno Brunetti and Antonio Sgamellotti. MOLAB first hit the road in 2001 as a scientific service to Italian museums, but it expanded to roam all of Europe in 2004, with funding from the European Commission. The traveling scientists make about 30 trips per year to far-flung places such as mountain monasteries and archaeological sites as well as to high-traffic museums. Although MOLAB often works with museums that don't otherwise have access to scientific instrumentation and expertise, bigger museums with in-house labs also sometimes request a MOLAB visit, often because they don't yet have the budget to purchase a particular piece of portable noninvasive equipment. The MOLAB team has also solved degradation mysteries, such as why paintings found on the exterior casings of mummified Christian monks in Egypt are bleaching