Chemicals: Interactions in Art, Humans and Nature

Abstract

2contains many such empirical recipes. The problem for the restorer is not just to find the right recipe qualitatively but to find the right quantitative dose in practice. All inorganic and organic nature is based on chemical compounds. Inorganic salts, sugars, amino acids etc. belong to the myriad of compounds from which the structures of our word are formed. In these structures, the various chemical compounds interact in properly dosed amounts and thus enable evolution and life. Catalysts and chemical messengers in our body such as enzymes and hormones only function well if they are present at the right concentration. Inappropriate concentrations of insulin disturb people's metabolism. Calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, chromium, manganese, zinc and cobalt are minor elements that are essential for life. However, in a test with animals, 80 mg of cobalt chloride per kg body weight kills one half of the test animals (LD 50). Compounds with an LD 50 larger than 2 g per kg body weight are not defined as being poisonous any more. Restorers are familiar with salts of heavy metals as parts of colour pigments. For deacidification of papers they use salts of earth alkaline elements. Restorers even work with enzymes in case they want to destroy animal glues. Restorers use a broad range of inorganic and organic chemicals. CYCLES OF MATTER Chemistry is everywhere. The complex interactions between different compounds with the effect depending on the dose determine the living spaces and the cycles of matter in these living spaces. 3-6 Fig. 1 gives an example: the paper cycle of which the restorer is a part. Each year huge amounts of energy and carbon are recycled in the biosphere. Such compounds as starch, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin are formed by plants from simple molecules like water and carbon dioxide under the influence of sunlight. Starch may be decomposed to sugar and is used as a foodstuff or a raw material in the chemical industry. 5 In a modified form, starch is used directly as an auxiliary material in the fabrication of paper. 7

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