In Science and Art: The Painted Surface, we see art quite literally on the edge. Some of the almost archeological investigation is targeted at transversal slices through the layers of paint. At other times we are shown underpainting or other hidden details revealed by synchrotron x-ray analysis, infrared reflectance, spectroscopy or fluorescence. Paintings are examined using the whole spectrum of visible and invisible electromagnetic waves. Sometimes, as in the examination of Mondrian's 'Victory Boogie Woogie' in the Netherlands, the work is done in full public view, albeit behind glass, almost as a performance. It feels as if those working on the paintings are somehow contributing to the art making process. There are questions about works of art that can be asked and answered by specialists without recourse to examination of the actual object. But there are others which necessitate physical examination of the work, and whose answers feed back into our knowledge of the artist and his or her work: what was the genesis of the work, and how was that done? What materials and techniques were used, how was it conserved, what was done to it? When paintings are not finished, they yield clues, for example marks, lines, bits of extraneous material, about the process of making such works.