A riot policeman uses a baton to hit a rioting University of Nairobi student in Kenya's capital Nairobi, in this May 20, 2014 file photo. (Photo by Noor Khamis/Reuters)

Japan's delegation gather to sign the formal surrender document on the U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay in a September 2, 1945 file photo. (Photo by Reuters/US Navy)

In this April 14, 2014 file photo, Hamamatou Harouna, 10, who lost the use of her legs to polio, crawls to the restroom on the grounds of the Catholic Church where she and hundreds of others found refuge after fleeing violence in her village, in Carnot, Central African Republic. Health authorities on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 are expected to declare the African continent free of the wild poliovirus after decades of effort, though cases of vaccine-derived polio are still sparking outbreaks of the paralyzing disease in more than a dozen countries. (Photo by Jerome Delay/AP Photo/File)

In this November 3, 2015 file photo, Afghan Taliban fighters listen to Mullah Mohammed Rasool, the newly-elected leader of a breakaway faction of the Taliban, in Farah province, Afghanistan. Despite US President Donald Trump’s pronouncement that there would be no talks with the Taliban following a series of deadly attacks in Kabul, officials say talks continue, but neither side trusts the other and neither believes the other negotiates independently. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)

In this Sunday, June 27, 2010 file photo two men compete in an ostrich race at Highgate ostrich farm in Oudtshoorn, South Africa. Clambering onto an ostrich for a ride used to be popular among tourists in a South African town of Oudtshoorn known of as the “ostrich capital of the world”. Not so much anymore. Two major ostrich farms in Oudtshoorn have stopped offering ostrich rides to tourists, responding to concerns about the birds’ welfare. A third farm is sticking with the feature, saying it is regulated and that ostriches do not experience discomfort. The Highgate farm, however, continues to offer ostrich rides. (Photo by Shuji Kajiyama/AP Photo)

In this April 1, 2002, file photo, Mike Cole, of Jenkintown, Pa., right, performs a kick-flip over a trash can with his skateboard as tourists pose for photos in front of artist Robert Indiana's sculpture in John F. Kennedy Plaza, also known as Love Park, in Philadelphia. Granite slabs from Philadelphia's famed Love Park, a skateboarding mecca though for a long stretch an illegal one, are being shipped in 2017 to the city of Malmo, Sweden, nearly 4,000 miles away, for use in construction of a skate park there. (Photo by Douglas Bovitt/AP Photo)

In this Tuesday, August 27, 2019, file photo, a climber stops to take pictures of clouds while climbing towards the summit of Mount Fuji to watch the sunrise, in Japan. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo/File)

People will spout about impermanence of digital records, but books are really fragile, too. Alexis Arnold from San Francisco wanted to illustrate that with her project The Crystallized Book: collecting books and growing Borax crystals on them. Books range from literature classics to magazines, and there’s even a mysterious and arcane tome called “Linux: The Complete Manual”.