Nice science column in today's Wall Street Journal by Robert Lee Hotz on the lost art of restoring and conserving masterpieces. It's set at the Getty, which is spearheading a program to train new experts. "No more than half a dozen or so restoration specialists world-wide have the expertise for such sophisticated work, and most of them are nearing retirement," Hotz writes, adding the big picture: "This art specialty is a microcosm of the crisis in lost expertise that faces many technical endeavors today, from nuclear weapons maintenance to manned space flight." Nice quote: "People talk about the learning curve," says California Institute of Technology physicist Paul Dimotakis. "Nobody talks about the forgetting curve."

There's video and more photos at the WSJ.