SEEKING AN ETERNAL SOLUTION

AT THE CENTER of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History’s gleaming new Sant Ocean Hall lies a preserved giant female squid—the arresting, spineless star among the vibrant exhibition’s animal specimens. Tentacles menacingly outstretched and seemingly frozen in time, the 24-foot squid embodies humans’ fascination with the briny deep. But this squid also symbolizes something else: an ongoing experiment in the chemistry of preservation, without which the Smithsonian’s new exhibition would not have been possible. The fluids most widely used for longterm museum conservation are solutions of alcohols, such as ethanol, and formalin, a dilute solution of formaldehyde. Museums worldwide have been preparing and displaying soft-bodied animals such as squid in much the same way for centuries, despite the fire and health risks these fluids pose. But the Smithsonian was forced to try a new approach after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when the Washington, D.C., fire marshal drastically limited th...