Top 10 science stories of 2008 -- #10: The ancient astronomical computer

December 21, 7:06 PMScience News ExaminerMeg Marquardt

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The Antikythera device.  Credit AP.

In celebration of the approaching New Year, I present a list of the top ten science stories of 2008.  Taken from the vast expanse of all fields of science, they may not be everyone's top ten, but they are among the top news makers and will have repercussions well past the ending days of 2008.

It was an enigma for more than 100 years:  What in the world was this bundle of mechanisms and clockwork gears that was discovered on a shipwrecked Roman vessel?  Found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, archaeologists were baffled at this so called Antikythera mechanism.  Nothing of its kind had ever been seen.

Named for the island it was found near, the Antikythera device initially caused quite a stir, but the limited technology of the 1900s was simply not enough to elucidate the secrets of the machine.  However, the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project (AMRP) sprang up sometime in the early 2000s to root out the hidden facts about the artifact.  Based in Athens, Greece, an international team including scientists from Hewlett-Packard and X-Tek were brought in to examine the device.   It took an eight-ton X-Ray machine (the BladeRunner) to finally reveal some delightful details.  The AMRP website gives the following description of what the machine was able to do: "Originally designed to search for minute cracks in turbine blades, this machine gives astonishingly detailed three-dimensional x-rays, using the latest 'microfocus' x-ray techniques. It has opened a remarkable window on microscopic internal details of inscriptions and gearing at a resolution better than a tenth of a millimeter."

With the help of the BladeRunner, the mystery was untangled in 2005.  Published in the July issue of Nature, AMRP announced it was a calendar, one dedicated not only to the schedule of Olympic games, but also one that could predict eclipses and tell the phases of the sun and moon—intensely difficult calculations.  And to top it off, it was built over 2,000 years ago; the next most complex device won't be seen for another 1,000 years.  So, in truth, it is still baffling scientists.  "I still don't know how they did it," says Tony Freeth, a member of AMRP.

The device poses another interesting question: Just where was it going on a Roman vessel?  The shipwreck was found on the eastern edge of the ancient Greek empire, but the inscriptions on the Antikythera device are in Corinthian, a city located on the other end of the empire.  It is thought the machine was made sometime around 146 BC, right before the Romans invaded and devastated the city of Corinth.  So what was it doing so far from home?  It is a question that will most likely remain a mystery.

Check out the rest of the list here.