Presidential Treatment

These days everyone is preserving their looks with a little help from modern technology, so why should our greatest leaders be any exception? Later this year, Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln will get treated to a little laser action, but seeing as they haven't aged much, these are perhaps better described as preventative measures.

Teams from Scotland and California will perform laser scanning on the national treasure to collect data to create a 3-D representation of the monument.  Should it ever undergo any damage from, say, a natural disaster, a military attack or some madcap Greenpeace antics, we'll have the means to rebuild it.

Navnit Singh, director of interpretation and education at Mount Rushmore, tells USA Today, "It's revolutionary," and went on to shared the importance of preserving a "narrative of our human history." He also hopes that the complete 3-D rendering could eventually live in the visitor center to help teach children about the monument.

But Mount Rushmore isn't the only face-lift-worthy location. The California-based technology firm, CyArk, also has its sights literally set on other potentially vulnerable targets around the globe -- 500 of them. Don’t worry, we won't name them all, but here are a few: Acropolis of Athens (threatened by acid rain), Machu Picchu in Peru (excessive tourism), and the French Quarter in New Orleans (flooding).

Mr. Presidents, get ready for your close-up.

(Photo by Sfmontyo courtesy of Commons Wikimedia)