Monday, May 30, 2011

Lego Antikythera Mechanism



The Antikythera Mechanism is a device pulled from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. It was originally built thousands of years ago by the ancient Greeks, and has been found to calculate the future dates of astronomical events. The level of sophistication, apparently, is astounding. And now, someone has created a working copy made out of Legos. Brilliant.

Museum of the History of Science, Oxford

A few months ago, I found the website for the Museum of the History of Science at Oxford, online here. I was amazed especially by the online exhibitions. If you have a chance, go here: you can learn about steampunk, the significance of blackboards, "the most noble problem in nature," astrolabes, and mirrors made out of meteorites. That's quite a range. Oxford should be proud.