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SUMMARY:LARMOR LECTURE -  The Antikythera Mechanism and the Mechanical Uni
 verse - Professor Mike Edmunds\, Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics\, Univ
 ersity of Cardiff
DTSTART:20121008T163000Z
DTEND:20121008T173000Z
UID:TALK38539@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Beverley Larner
DESCRIPTION:\nOne of the most extraordinary surviving relics from the anci
 ent Greek world is a device containing over thirty gear wheels dating from
  the 1st century B.C.\, and now known as the Antikythera Mechanism. This d
 evice is an order of magnitude more complicated than any surviving mechani
 sm from the following millennium\, and it is clear from its structure and 
 inscriptions that its purpose was to represent the cyclic behaviour of the
  known Universe. I will outline the results from an international research
  team which has been using modern imaging methods to probe the device\, it
 s inscriptions and its astronomical functions. Our results show the remark
 able sophistication of the Mechanism's design. There are fundamental impli
 cations for the development of Greek astronomy\, philosophy and technology
 . The subsequent history of mathematics\, computation and cosmology may ex
 plain why the idea of a "Mechanical Universe"
LOCATION:Bristol-Myers-Squibb Lecture theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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