Today's issue of the journal Nature tells how researchers deciphered the inscriptions and reconstructed the gear functions on fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism, which was recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece.
The Antikythera Mechanism was created about 100 BCE to measure the rotation and position of heavenly bodies, but new high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography help us see how this early technology was a precursor to devices that could more accurately measure time, and machinery that performs work. Awesome.
I heard about this on NPR, totally cool! Thanks.
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Posted by: rocco | December 07, 2006 at 10:50 PM