Saving a Treasure
We'd just gotten home from a very disappointing convention when I heard the news of the fire in the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. I was already bummed from the news that Gene Wolfe had passed away, and the fresh blow came as a shock.
Over the days that followed I eagerly read the news of the efforts to save this masterpiece of Gothic architecture. The first bits of good news began to trickle in -- the basic structure was still intact, and was not immediately in danger of collapse. The Archbishop of Paris was able to celebrate Mass, albeit at one of the side altars, and wearing a workman's hard hat rather than a miter.
Since then, other things have pushed the restoration efforts off the headlines. But the efforts have continued, and now there will be a NOVA program on the science behind the restoration efforts, from the geologist who determined the origin of the cathedral's structural limestone by examining microfossils within the stones to the acousticians who made a "sound map" of the cathedral's nave, and are comparing the the one they made before the fire to the new acoustics of the damaged nave.
Over the days that followed I eagerly read the news of the efforts to save this masterpiece of Gothic architecture. The first bits of good news began to trickle in -- the basic structure was still intact, and was not immediately in danger of collapse. The Archbishop of Paris was able to celebrate Mass, albeit at one of the side altars, and wearing a workman's hard hat rather than a miter.
Since then, other things have pushed the restoration efforts off the headlines. But the efforts have continued, and now there will be a NOVA program on the science behind the restoration efforts, from the geologist who determined the origin of the cathedral's structural limestone by examining microfossils within the stones to the acousticians who made a "sound map" of the cathedral's nave, and are comparing the the one they made before the fire to the new acoustics of the damaged nave.