More than a hundred years ago an extraordinary mechanism was found by sponge divers at the bottom of the sea near the island of Antikythera. It astonished the whole international community of experts on the ancient world. Was it an astrolabe? Was it an orrery or an astronomical clock? Or something else?
For decades, scientific investigation failed to yield much light and relied more on imagination than the facts. However research over the last half century has begun to reveal its secrets. It dates from around the end of the 2nd century B.C. and is the most sophisticated mechanism known from the ancient world. Nothing as complex is known for the next thousand years. The Antikythera Mechanism is now understood to be dedicated to astronomical phenomena and operates as a complex mechanical "computer" which tracks the cycles of the Solar System.
Previous researchers have used the latest technologies available to them -such as x-ray analysis- to try to begin to unravel its complex mysteries. Now a new initiative is building on this previous work, using the very latest techniques available today. The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project is an international collaboration of academic researchers, supported by some of the world's best high-technology companies, which aims to completely reassess the function and significance of the Antikythera Mechanism.
The project is under the aegis of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and was initially supported by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust, UK. More details bout subsequent funding are here. The project has received strong backing from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, which is custodian of this unique artefact. Two of the Museum's senior staff, Head of Chemistry, Eleni Magou, and Archaeologist-museologist, Mary Zafeiropoulou, have co-ordinated the Museum's side of the project and are actively involved with the research.
One UK and two Greek universities are the core of the academic research group -the astronomer Mike Edmunds and the mathematician and filmmaker Tony Freeth (University of Cardiff), the astronomer John Seiradakis (University of Thessalonica), the astronomer Xenophon Moussas and the physicist and historian of science Yanis Bitsakis (University of Athens). And last, but not least, the philologist and palaeographer Agamemnon Tselikas (NBG Cultural Foundation).
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The Antikythera mechanism is believed to be an ancient mechanical analog computer (as opposed to most computers today which are digital computers) designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and has been dated to about 150-100 BC. It is especially notable for being a technological artifact with no known predecessor or successor; other machines using technology of such complexity would not appear until the 18th century.
Discovery
Sometime during the year 1901, Elias Stadiatis, a Greek sponge diver, with a sponge diving group, discovered the wreck of an ancient cargo ship off Antikythera island at a depth of 50 meters. (Sponge divers had earlier retrieved several statues and other artifacts from the site. The mechanism itself was discovered in 1901.) The name has been confused in some recent publications with that of a politician of the same name.
It was noticed that a piece of rock recovered from the site had a gear wheel embedded in it. Examination revealed that the rock was in fact a heavily encrusted and corroded mechanism that had survived the shipwreck in three main parts and dozens of smaller fragments.The device itself was surprisingly thin, about 33 cm (13 in) high, 17 cm (6.7 in) wide, and 9 cm (3.5 in) thick, made of bronze and originally mounted in a wooden frame. It was inscribed with a text of over 2,000 characters, many of which have been deciphered.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau visited the wreck for the last time in 1978, but found no more remains of the Antikythera Mechanism. Professor Michael Edmunds of Cardiff University who led the study of the mechanism said: "This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind. The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right. The way the mechanics are designed just makes your jaw drop. Whoever has done this has done it extremely carefully."
The device is displayed in the Bronze Collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, accompanied by a reconstruction made and offered to the museum by Derek de Solla Price. Another reconstruction is on display at the American Computer Museum in Bozeman, Montana.
Origins
The origins of the mechanism are unclear, as are the circumstances by which it came to be on the cargo ship. The ship was Roman, but there is no doubt that the mechanism itself was made in Greece.
One hypothesis is that the device was constructed at an academy founded by the ancient Stoic philosopher Posidonius on the Greek island of Rhodes, which at the time was known as a centre of astronomy and mechanical engineering. Investigators have suggested that the ship could have been carrying it to Rome, together with other treasure looted from the island to support a triumphal parade being staged by Julius Caesar.
Function and Purpose
The Antikythera mechanism is one of the world's oldest known geared devices. It has puzzled and intrigued historians of science and technology since its discovery. Following decades of work in order to clean the device, systematic investigations were undertaken in 1951 by British Derek J. de Solla Price, professor of history of science at Yale University at that time.
In June 1959, in a front-page article in Scientific American titled "An ancient Greek computer", he brought forth the theory that the Antikythera mechanism was a device for calculating the motions of stars and planets, which would make the device the first analog computer. Up until that time the function of the Antikythera mechanism was largely unknown, though it had been correctly identified as an astronomical device, perhaps being an astrolabe.
In 1971 the Greek nuclear research center "DEMOKRITOS" performed gamma-ray scans of the mechanism. In 1972 Price teamed up with Greek nuclear physicist Christoforos Karakalos to carry out X-ray analysis of the mechanism, in this way revealing critical information concerning the device's interior configuration.
In 1974 he authored "Gears from the Greeks: the Antikythera mechanism - a calendar computer from ca. 80 B.C.", where he presented a model of how the mechanism could have functioned. Recent research breakthroughs seem to give credence to Price's theory.
The device is all the more impressive for its use of a differential gear - previously believed to have been invented in the 16th century - and for the level of miniaturization and complexity of its parts, which is comparable to that of clocks made in the 18th century.
The differential gear arrangement is composed of 30+ gears with teeth formed through equilateral triangles. When past or future dates were entered via a crank (now lost), the mechanism calculated the position of the sun, moon or other astronomical information such as the location of other planets.
The use of differential gears enabled the mechanism to add or subtract angular velocities. The differential was used to compute the synodic lunar cycle by subtracting the effects of the sun's movement from those of the sidereal lunar movement.
It is possible that the mechanism is based on heliocentric principles, rather than the then dominant geocentric view espoused by Aristotle and others. This may indicate that the heliocentric view was more widely accepted at the time than was previously thought.While the Antikythera mechanism was certainly remarkably advanced for its era, it was possibly not unique.
Cicero, writing in the 1st century BC, mentions an instrument "recently constructed by our friend Poseidonius, which at each revolution reproduces the same motions of the sun, the moon and the five planets." (Cicero was himself a student of Poseidonius.)
Similar devices are mentioned in other ancient sources. It also adds support to the idea that there was an ancient Greek tradition of complex mechanical technology which was later transmitted to the Arab world, where similar but simpler devices were built during the medieval period.
The early 9th century Kitab al-Hiyal ("Book of Ingenious Devices"), commissioned by the Caliph of Baghdad, records over a hundred mechanical devices described in Greek texts that had been preserved in monasteries. Such knowledge could have yielded to or been integrated with European clockmaking and ancient cranes.
The device's actual purpose still remains unclear, as we do not know its full range of capabilities. Some investigators believe that the Antikythera mechanism could have been used to track celestial bodies for auspicious occasions such as religious events or births.
Price suggested that it might have been on public display, possibly in a museum or public hall in Rhodes. The island was renowned for its displays of mechanical engineering, particularly automata, which apparently were a speciality of the Rhodians; to quote Pindar's seventh Olympic Ode:
The animated figures stand
Adorning every public street
And seem to breathe in stone, or
move their marble feet.
Investigations and Reconstructions
Price's model, as presented in his "Gears from the Greeks: the Antikythera mechanism - a calendar computer from ca. 80 B.C.", was the first, theoretical, attempt at reconstructing the device. According to that model, the front dial shows the annual progress of the sun and moon through the zodiac against the Egyptian calendar. The upper rear dial displays a four-year period and has associated dials showing the Metonic cycle of 235 synodic months, which approximately equals 19 solar years. The lower rear dial plots the cycle of a single synodic month, with a secondary dial showing the lunar year of 12 synodic months. A British orrery maker named John Gleave, constructed a replica based hereupon, though with some very slight modifications of his, in order for it to be functional. The following link gives an idea of the internals of this device, though later researchers have doubts as to whether Price's model is an accurate representation of the original Antikythera mechanism.
A partial reconstruction was built by Australian computer scientist Allan George Bromley (19472002) of the University of Sydney and Sydney clockmaker Frank Percival. This project led Bromley to review Price's X-ray analysis and to make new, more accurate X-ray images that were studied by Bromley's student, Bernard Gardner, in 1993. His model differed significantly from Price's earlier proposition, though it wasn't considered satisfactory either.
Another reconstruction was made in 2002 by Michael Wright, mechanical engineering curator for The Science Museum in London, working with Allan Bromley. He analyzed the mechanism using linear tomography, which can create images of a narrow focal plane, and thus visualized the gears in great detail. In Wright's reconstruction, the device not only models the motions of the sun and moon, but of all the classical planets.
"Dark Sky Park" Galloway Forest in Scotland
The forest has become the first Dark Sky Park in the UK and the fourth in the world, with the other three in the US.
The award, presented by the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), recognises the quality of the night sky in the area, where light pollution is minimal.
There are few buildings within the park’s perimeter and pitch-black sky at night makes it easy to see distant galaxies such as the Milky Way and Andromeda.
Martin Morgan-Taylor, UK board member for the IDA, said: “Its location is ideally situated for access from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast and northern England, meaning that many people, including children, may have access to a quality night sky, both now and in generations to come.
“Such skies are rapidly disappearing and less than 10 per cent of people in the UK can now see the Milky Way from where they live.”
The other three Dark Sky Parks are at the Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah, the Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania and the Geauga Park in Ohio.
Galloway Forest Park was established in 1947, covers 300 square miles (185,329 acres) and is the largest of its kind in Britain.
Forestry Commission Scotland submitted an application for dark sky status six weeks ago, and the IDA decided it merited the award at its annual general meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, over the weekend.
As part of the selection process, the quality of sky above the park was measured using a sky quality meter.
The darkest reading, such as that in a photographer's darkroom, would be 24, while a likely reading in a major city would be 15 or 16. Galloway Forest Park was rated 23.
While in a city such as Glasgow one would see 500 stars at the most on a good night, above Galloway Forest Park one could expect to see as many as 7,000.
Keith Muir, Forestry Commission Scotland's head of tourism and recreation in Galloway, said: “We have boldly gone where no one in the UK has gone before. I'm so pleased that everyone's support and hard work has paid off.”
Roseanna Cunningham, Scottish environment minister, said: “Understandably all those involved in this innovative project are over the moon and I'm thrilled for them and for Scotland.”
A mysterious 'alien like' creature horrified holidaymakers after it washed up on a beach on the Gower Peninsula in Wales.
The writhing mass of tentacles, which measured at least 6ft from end to end, was described by a zoology expert today as 'like something out of Doctor Who'.
Hundreds of people flocked to Oxwich Beach near Swansea to catch a glimpse of the monster.
But fears of a UFO invasion were put to rest as scientists revealed it was a seething mass of goose barnacles that was swept up from the depths of the ocean by bad weather.The barnacles - long writhing stalks or pendulates, tipped with shells - are normally found deep below the waves, but were washed up clinging to a log.
Professor Paul Brain, of Swansea University, said: 'One child screamed out that it resembled something from Dr Who and I would have to agree with her - it made very bizarre viewing.
'In fact they were probably the biggest specimens of free-floating goose barnacles I've seen.
'The log is about two metres long and as thick as a telegraph pole so I wouldn't be surprised if there were a couple of thousand barnacles on there.'
Holidaymaker Rebecca Porter said the log was like 'a large living sea monster'.
She said: 'The stalk on which the puffin-shaped head sat on was soft and rubbery and moved like a snake.
'They appeared to be attached to a piece of driftwood but it could hardly be seen as it was densely covered with these huge tentacles that opened and closed, thrusting out fronds like uncurling ferns.'
The tentacled creature relies on water motion for feeding - leading to it frequently being washed up on shore.
The barnacle extends its fan-like array of limbs to catch plankton, and attaches itself to surfaces by its stalk - leaving it unable to move from the point it is fixed.
There was also a second barnacle-covered log, measuring around 1ft in length, which washed up alongside the bigger one.
Professor Brain said: 'They tend to live in the oceans and can attach themselves to the bottom of ships.
'It's normally found in quite deep water but occasionally they can be found on debris that has become dislodged from the sea bed and has washed up on the shore.
'I would think the bad weather caused by the jet stream in the past month has probably dislodged these barnacle infested logs from their resting places, giving people a rare look at them for free on the beach.'
Professor Brain added: 'They're actually a delicacy in Spain although I haven't seen any Spanish people trying to chisel them off.
'Back in the old days, people thought barnacle geese hatched from them. A Welsh monk in the 12th century, Giraldus Cambrensis, even claimed to have seen geese hatching from them.'
In Portugal and Spain, the barnacles are a widely consumed and expensive delicacy known as percebes. They have a briny taste and are served steaming hot with their triangular shells still attached.
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The Naica Mine of Chihuahua, Mexico, is a working mine that is known for its extraordinary crystals. Naica is a lead, zinc and silver mine in which large voids have been found, containing crystals of selenite (gypsum) as large as 4 feet in diameter and 50 feet long. The chamber holding these crystals is known as the Crystal Cave of Giants, and is approximately 1000 feet down in the limestone host rock of the mine. The crystals were formed by hydrothermal fluids emanating from the magma chambers below. The cavern was discovered while the miners were drilling through the Naica fault, which they were worried would flood the mine. The Cave of Swords is another chamber in the Naica Mine, containing similar large crystals.
The Naica mine was first discovered by early prospectors in 1794 south of Chihuahua City. They struck a vein of silver at the base of a range of hills called Naica by the Tarahumara Indians. The origin in the Tarahumara language seems to mean "a shady place". Perhaps here in the small canyon there was a grove of trees tucked away by a small canyon spring.
From that discovery, until around 1900, the primary interest was silver and gold. Around 1900 large-scale mining began as zinc and lead became more valuable.
During the Mexican Revolution the mine was producing a great deal of wealth. Revolutionary troops entered the town and demanded money from the owners. One of them was assassinated when he refused to pay, causing the mine to shut down from 1911 to 1922.
Just before the mine was closed, the famous Cave of Swords was discovered at a depth of 400 feet. Due to the incredible crystals, it was decided to try to preserve this cave. While many of the crystals have been collected, this is still a fascinating cave to visit. In one part there are so many crystals on one of the walls, they appear to be like an underwater reef moving in a gentle undulating motion in an ocean current.
In April 2000, brothers Juan and Pedro Sanchez were drilling a new tunnel when they made a truly spectacular discovery. While Naica miners are accustomed to finding crystals, Juan and Pedro were absolutely amazed by the cavern that they found. The brothers immediately informed the engineer in charge, Roberto Gonzalez. Ing. Gonzalez realized that they had discovered a natural treasure and quickly rerouted the tunnel. During this phase some damage was done as several miners tried to remove pieces of the mega-crystals, so the mining company soon installed an iron door to protect the find. Later, one of the workers, with the intention of stealing crystals, managed to get in through a narrow hole. He tried to take some plastic bags filled with fresh air inside, but the strategy didn't work. He lost consciousness and later was found thoroughly baked.
When entering the cave our group is issued helmets, lanterns, rubber boots, and gloves. One must then be driven by truck into the main mining tunnel called Rampa Sn. Francisco. While the vertical drop is approximately 1000 feet, the drive is almost a half mile long. The heat steadily increases and women have been observed to begin "glowing". The truck stops in front of a concrete wall with a steel door. The intense heat can prevent brain functioning.
At the end of the tunnel there are three or four steps into the aperture of the cavern itself. It is in this short tunnel. In this short distance the temperature and humidity goes from being uncomfortably warm to literally a blast furnace.
Momentarily, the penetrating heat is forgotten as the crystals pop into view on the other side of the "Eye of the Queen". The entire panorama is now lighted and the cavern has a depth and impressive cathedral-like appearance that was not visible on earlier trips with just our headlamps.
When inside the great cathedral of crystals, the pressure of intense heat create a gamut of emotions and perhaps hallucinations. One can only remain for a short period of time.
Geologists report that these natural crystal formations are incredibly complex, yet so simple. They have a magical or metaphysical personality independent of their chemical structures. There is a magma chamber two to three miles below the mountain and that heat from this compressed lava travels through the faults up into the area of the mine. Super heated fluids carry the minerals the miners are seeking as well as form the crystals. The mine is ventilated; otherwise, it could not be worked. Some parts, however, are not air-conditioned, such as the Cave of the Crystals, and there you feel the heat from the magma deep below. The fluids travel along the Naica fault, enter voids in the bedrock, and then form entirely natural structures that are not easily explained scientifically.
In April 2000, the mining company became confident that the water table on the other side of the fault had been lowered sufficiently to drill.
When they did this, it is almost as if a magical veil of reality was breached and an entirely new world was discovered. Two caverns filled with the Earth's largest crystals were immediately revealed. More discoveries are expected to be made in this magical kingdom of intense natural beauty.
Selenite, the gypsum crystal, named after the Greek goddess of the moon, Selene, due to its soft white light, is said to have many metaphysical and healing benefits. Selenite powder has been used cosmetically for thousands of years to enhance one's natural beauty. It is believed that this crystal assists with mental focus, growth, luck, immunity, and soothes the emotions.
