DeClements uses vertical rebar with horizontal steel ties, plus a layer of waterproof insulation, electrical wiring and plumbing.

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To preserve them for more than a billion years to make fossils out of ephemera a site first has to coat its remains in a fixative: a thin layer of waterproof sediment that will slowly harden into stone.

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In the early 19th century the Scotsman Charles Macintosh developed a process for making waterproof fabric by putting a layer of rubber between two layers of cloth.

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