1600 Year Old Roman Cup Shows Pioneering Nanotechnology

[Frank]

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/histo...s-Were-Nanotechnology-Pioneers-220563661.html

The colorful secret of a 1,600-year-old Roman chalice at the British Museum is the key to a supersensitive new technology that might help diagnose human disease or pinpoint biohazards at security checkpoints.

It's mindblowing the incredible things our species has been capable of in times we would currently think of as primitive. It's mindblowing how much of it has been lost to the ravages of time. They were working with ground down materials 1/1000th the size of table salt.

 

[Ravenpoe]

That's really neat.

 

[General Specific]

Wow, that is amazing. If only the ancients hadn't viewed technology as something to be guarded, we may be much more advance than we are today.



And cue the ancient alien theorists...

 

[Ravenpoe]

This reminds me of a good book I read called "1491" by Charles Mann. It's a look at what civilization was like in the Amercas before Europeans showed up to crash the party.

 

[AshburnerX]

I read the thread title as 1600 Year Old Roman Cop and thought "That's an interesting idea for a movie..."

 

[Ravenpoe]

I read the thread title as 1600 Year Old Roman Cop and thought "That's an interesting idea for a movie..."

Spoiler

 

[PatrThom]

Isn't this similar to the color change displayed by chrysoberyl and its related compounds?
(they're some of the coolest gemstones, in my opinion)

--Patrick

 

[BananaHands]

Spoiler

God I love you R-P.

 

[Eriol]

If only the ancients hadn't viewed technology as something to be guarded, we may be much more advance than we are today.

If only we still didn't, and we actually shared knowledge rather than guarding it fiercely. This is not something that has changed, rather just that the average level of knowledge worldwide is higher.