The Antikythera Mechanism from Ancient Greece had over 30 gears, and could predict when eclipses would happen, track the irregular orbit of the stars, and figure out when the Olympic games would happen!
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Ah! What could be cooler than the 15th-century Voynich Manuscript, a document that has stumped linguists and cryptographers since its rediscovery? Yeah, It’s super fascinating. It uses different letters and people have tried corresponding them to various languages like Latin (it has some Latin words in the margins). The paintings are about medical/”sciency” stuff, and
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“The Mushroom Hunters,” a poem by Neil Gaiman, is a feminist paean about science, inspired by history. Some commentary about the history behind the poem: in evolutionary human behavior, much is speculative. “The Mushroom Hunters” draws from many hypotheses made by anthropologists, several of which I have featured stories about. Here are some of them:
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Automata are machines that operate on their own, and have been around since Ancient Egyptian times. Often they are automated animals or people designed to impress an audience. This one might give you nightmares. Tragically, the “Automaton of a Friar” that you see here is currently not on display at the National Museum of American
