If you feel that your experiments can take for ever, spare a thought for the scientists studying the disposal of nuclear waste. The half-lives of some radioactive wastes stretch to hundreds of thousands of years. How can the materials used to contain these wastes ever be properly tested? The solution, or at least part of it, is to collaborate with archaeologists. One of the best disposal options is to trap the waste in glass and bury it. So when the civilizations of the Middle East first learnt how to make glass at least 4,500 years ago, they unwittingly launched an experiment on the long-term stability of the favoured material for storing nuclear waste. Archaeologists have since excavated samples of these glasses, and their findings could help materials scientists improve nuclear-waste disposal.
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