A replica of the Antikythera Mechanism, a stunningly complex 2,100-year-old celestial computer.
Credit: The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project
PARIS: A 2,100-year-old clockwork machine whose remains were retrieved from a shipwreck more than a century ago has turned out to be the celestial super-computer of the ancient world.
Using 21st-century technology to peer beneath the surface of the encrusted gearwheels, stunned scientists say the so-called Antikythera Mechanism could predict the ballet of the Sun and Moon over decades and calculate a lunar anomaly that would bedevil Isaac Newton himself.
Built in Greece around 150 to 100 BC and possibly linked to the astronomer and mathematician Hipparchos, its complexity was probably unrivalled for at least a thousand years, they say.
"It's beautifully designed. Your jaw drops when you work out what they did and what they put into this," said astronomer Mike Edmunds of Cardiff University in Wales. "It implies the Greeks had great technical sophistication."
The Antikythera Mechanism is named after its place of discovery, where Greek divers, exploring a Roman shipwreck at a depth of 42 metres in 1901, came across 82 curious bronze fragments.
At first, these pieces, thickly encrusted and jammed together after lying more two millennia on the sea floor, lay forgotten. But a closer look showed them to be exquisitely made, hand-cut, toothed gearwheels.
It was clear that, within this find, 29 gearwheels fitted together, possibly making some sort of astronomical calendar. But of what, exactly? For a quarter of a century, the textbook on the strange find was a work written by a historian of science and technology, Derek de Solla Price.
He hypothesised that the Mechanism in fact had 31 gearwheels, and did something pretty astonishing - it linked the solar year with a 19-year cycle in the phases of the Moon. This is the so-called Metonic cycle, which takes the Moon 235 lunar months to the same phase on the same date in the year.
Edmunds' team, gathering experts from Britain, Greece and the United States, has now taken the tale several chapters forward.
In a paper published today in the British journal Nature, they describe how they used three-dimensional X-ray computation tomography and high-resolution surface imaging to peek beneath the Mechanism's surface without damaging the priceless artefact.
2100 year old clockwork computer
I happened to have stumbled upon this page, and read what it entails. I find it fascinating to be able to recover such precious artifacts from the depths of the earth, clean them up, and make them work again. Not only is it precise, it's complex, it looks large, and it's useful. It is beautiful and not only do I thank the scientists who were able to preserve such a find, but also commend them for recovering something as note worthy as this.
-s.
They made a new one using the original as a pattern.
It was not the original to made to work again.
It remains encased in it's
It remains encased in it's encrusted state, so is not working. Computer models were probably used to determine the precise ratios at which it worked and thus discover it's suspected purpose.
Makes you question a lot of things
For centuries we have been trying to prove how smart we are, when in fact, we should have been looking to our ancestors for help.
Money makes the workd go round...
Well it seems that not only the Hellenic world knew that the earth was round and moving around the sun, but they knew the exact rotation of the moon and maybe planets and stars.
When Galileo figured out that the earth was moving defending heliocentrism, he was accused of heresy against the holy scriptures and was ordered imprisoned.
But it wasnt the church's fault... They just went by the book:
Christian biblical references
Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30
include text stating that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved."
In the same tradition, Psalm 104:5 says,
"the LORD set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved."
Further, Ecclesiastes 1:5
states that "And the sun rises and sets and returns to its place, etc."
Unlike the Hellenic world, it seems that some other cultures in those ages either didnt beleive scientific facts or ignored the truth.
Should Galileo be accused of heresy towards the church or should the church be accused of heresy towards the truth?
On 31 October 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, and officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Wow, from 1616 to 1992... Yes they had a great amount of time to rethink about the issue.
antikytheran computer
the church went to great lengths to bury and destroy any knowledge, discoveries, teachings and writings that contradicted the image or written word of their corrupted institution. who will ever know how far they set the world back by burning or destroying any accounts or discoveries of the time which threatened their idea of the world and it s events. one would think god would be in favor of expanding our mind and knowledge, not suppressing it and persecuting the couriers of progress.
The biblical references are
The biblical references are useless, because the biblical writers never intended to explain any natural phenomena, like the movement of celestial bodies. At most, they show what lookers on earth would notice, that the "earth is firmly established" and that the sun "rises and sets", expressions that we still use today.
It is a shame to blame the bible for what the church did, in fact, the church tried desperately to prevent people from being able to read the scriptures, maybe one or two history lessons will help.
On the subject matter (on the article) the mechanism is really impressive, and it proves that ancient people were as (or more) smart as we are today, and it speaks lots against the evolution crap, in fact, when one revisits history, the logical conclusion is that mankind is "de-volutioning".
Your ignorance is astounding...
I don't work hard enough to call myself a Christian scholar, but I do have a much more profound understanding of the bible than "the church" brought up in your arguments (presumably the Catholic church). I would take time to elaborate how the modern church is nothing but a shrine for the worship of man, and is no different than a "church of atheism", but for the purpose of my argument... let's just say most modern beliefs are not based on the bible.
That being said, those scriptures you pointed out do not, in any way, refer to the astrological ordering of the Earth and Sun as geocentric. The first scriptures referring to the Earth were used as metaphors for the NATURE of the Earth as a whole. To elaborate, the phrase "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved" refers to the greater reality being unchangeable (i.e. the law of gravity, animals' need for water, water being the liquid form of H20). That statement uses "the world" loosely as a substitute for "reality" because the people of the bible's time only knew of the world around them and not much else. The other piece of scripture about the sun is just the status quo again. It does not imply the sun is immobile in space unless it is "rising" or "setting". It is simply a metaphor whose meaning is closer to (if you will pardon the expression) "it is what it is". Further, how could you argue otherwise for such a simple statement considering even in modern times; we still refer to our terrestrial view of the sun's "movement" over our spinning rock as the rising and setting of the sun.
Having said all of that, I would still agree that the lengths in which the greater "church" went during those ages mentioned by you and others on this page are unacceptable and inspired by fear of the loss of power rather than CHRISTIANITY. I don't understand how some of you people can equate the spiritual beliefs of all Christians in the world as doorways to ignorance. The bible is the Christian codex for wisdom and spirituality; it is not a damned science textbook. I wish more people of science were not so bigoted and disdainful of something they have very little understanding of.
Your Ignorance is astounding
Christians burn and imprison scientists, and when they protest, why they're ignorant bigots who have little understanding of scripture which the Christians now excuse themselves as not understanding then either.
You just keep excusing yourselves for your crimes, as any other religion. And that's your real religion. It will be a great day when people realize faith=criminal.
And yet you flout your own ignorance!
You claim that Christians burn and imprison scientists; does this apply to all Christians, in your view? I should hope not. You additionally claim Christians are bigots who have little understanding of their own holy book; are you serious, or simply delusional? Lastly, you say that Christians excuse themselves from their own crimes, and that this pattern of behavior is similar throughout all religions; what facts do you base this assumption on? What empirical evidence do you have?
The basic truth is that there are several faiths who believe in the "one true God,", of whom Christianity is among, and all of those faiths (religions, if you will) went through their own metamorphosis, their own "growing up". Also, all major (and minor) faiths have sects of belief across the entire spectrum of validity, vehemence, and devotion. It would be ignorance to say that Christianity (as all other faiths, as well) is faultless; it would be ignorance as well to discredit an entire faith for past mistakes and grievances. While I will readily admit that the example of Galileo is appalling, I cannot disavow the entire belief system because of it. As a system, religion is an institution of man in his pursuit of God, not the other way around, and man is not infallible. Therefore, you will have people who use the system to their advantage, due to either a perceived threat to themselves or the system that supports them.
The example of Galileo, and others, proves that at that time the Catholic Church perceived a threat to the power that they held over the populace at large because of Galileo's scientific discoveries. However, those judgments were made by men, whose small minds could not grasp the concepts of a stationary Sun and movable Earth. That perceived threat to their belief system had to be dealt with, they believed, and in that time, it was dealt with by suppression and denial. I won't say that that isn't the case now, but there are more skeptics in the Church than ever before. Additionally, even more pressure is being put on scientific education by the Church; a forceful advancement of ideals, in the hope that faith and science can coexist in one mind, in one belief system.
A verse in the Bible is used frequently in these talks, specifically Proverbs 1:4-6, which states that, "To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings." What this basically means that one must learn carefully, be wise in the application of what has been learned, and that what has been learned can be brought to the light ("dark sayings" is shown in several instances in the Holy Bible not to mean evil knowledge, but knowledge withheld from man, secrets that he must learn to become wise, lost in the shadows of time, so to speak, and that to learn these secrets will be illuminating; "dark secrets" are often pointed out by ecclesiastical scholars to be those which are extremely important because they have been so hidden.)
So, to finally put forth my point, the Christian faith (as many others), is wrought with examples of mistakes in its history, but that one cannot assume that the general faith as it is today is so radical to suppress innovation, the advancement of knowledge, and the benefit of technology used in study. These same accusations have been made about Judaism and financial gain, as well as Islam and extremism in how others should conduct their daily life. I have no doubt that all three faiths give incredibly good guidance in how one should live; I've studied all of them extensively. But to say that the majority of Christians are nutjobs who turn down medicine, or that Jews control the world's financial markets, or Muslims all want to be martyrs and blow themselves up is simply lunacy. You cannot base your judgment of an entire faith on the behavior of that faith's extremists. Your judgment of other faiths, specifically Christianity, is so bigoted that I'm appalled anyone can make such a statement and believe it to be true.
The discovery of this machine and it's designed purpose is one of the most extraordinary things to happen in both the astronomical sciences and the engineering sciences of today. To find that the same knowledge to build such a machine was known before the discovery of algebra is simply mind-blowing, to say the least. As someone who holds strong beliefs myself, I can say that my faith is not only confirmed, but strengthened, not diminished at all. To know that such a thing was possible, even 1,000 years ago, much less 2,000, is astounding. This truly is an amazing thing; it confirms, for me at least, that God had hidden a great truth, and through His commandment to learn and apply that knowledge, this wonderful machine has finally seen the light of day (at least in it's new incarnation after being remade) for the first time in two millennia.
Your basic assumption is wrong: Christianity in itself is NOT evil, it is the behavior of men who were in power in the Catholic Church at the time that was evil. To accuse all Christians of bigotry is an act of bigotry in itself. To accuse all Christians of "burn[ing] and imprison[ing] scientists" is more than ridiculous, it's plain idiocy. Who are you to judge an entire faith based on the behavior of what you've seen on TV or heard on the radio? If you want a true understanding of a faith, put your bias aside and pick up that faith's holy book; take a course in religious studies; or talk to someone who is intelligent in that faith; don't disavow an entire belief system based on the actions of its extremists. And definitely DON'T espouse terribly bad beliefs around those who could easily point out how simply stupid your behavior is!