Science Projects to Preserve Our Heritage

Some years ago in 2001 the Taliban led government of Afghanistan decided to destroy the ancient Buddha Statues at Bamiyan. These huge Buddha Statues were part of the Buddhist Heritage which are now lost to the new generations forever. They were not even documented or photographed properly.

This action has inspired a non profit organization called CyArk to an interesting science project to help preserve the heritage of our earth for future generations. They have been making digital scans of the Moai statues of Easter Islands, the ruins of Pompeii and now the sculptures of Mount Rushmore.

Should these structures ever get damaged or need to be rebuilt the scans will allow a full scale 3 D model to be developed. These models can then be used to restore the monument to its original glory. These scans are going to be freely available on the internet and can be studied on their website.

Saving the world is not just about the natural environment anymore. It is also about the human environment and the work of past civilizations being preserved.  The inventor of the laser scanner could never have predicted this use of the equipment. What will your science fair project be used for?