One man’s Botox is the plastic tape’s plasticiser, or so it would seem. Contrary to the public notion that plastic lasts forever, the material has its limits and old recordings especially can fall victim to the so-called “vinegar syndrome”, which hardens the tape, making it brittle, and thereby compromising the sound imprinted on it. The reason for this is the gradual loss of the plasticiser used in the material. That is about to change thanks to the discovery made by an ethnomusicologist in Austria. The solution: a nice long bath in a tub containing a plasticiser solution. While humans are known to sing in the shower, the sound quality is debatable and researchers also still have to invent a magic potion that will allow us to emerge from a bath as good as new…