# kb

id: history-of-science-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science-9.md
category: reference
title: History of science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:13.353605+00:00
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parent: history-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== Preservation of Greek heritage ==== The fall of the Western Roman Empire led to a deterioration of the classical tradition in the western part (or Latin West) of Europe during the 5th century. In contrast, the Byzantine Empire resisted the barbarian attacks and preserved and improved the learning. While the Byzantine Empire still held learning centers such as Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch, Western Europe's knowledge was concentrated in monasteries until the development of medieval universities in the 12th centuries. The curriculum of monastic schools included the study of the few available ancient texts and of new works on practical subjects like medicine and timekeeping. In the sixth century in the Byzantine Empire, Isidore of Miletus compiled Archimedes' mathematical works in the Archimedes Palimpsest, where all Archimedes' mathematical contributions were collected and studied. John Philoponus, another Byzantine scholar, was the first to question Aristotle's teaching of physics, introducing the theory of impetus. The theory of impetus was an auxiliary or secondary theory of Aristotelian dynamics, put forth initially to explain projectile motion against gravity. It is the intellectual precursor to the concepts of inertia, momentum and acceleration in classical mechanics. The works of John Philoponus inspired Galileo Galilei ten centuries


id: history-of-science-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science-10.md
category: reference
title: History of science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:13.353605+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== Advancements in mathematics ==== Most of the achievements by Islamic scholars during this period were in mathematics. Arabic mathematics was a direct descendant of Greek and Indian mathematics. For instance, what is now known as Arabic numerals originally came from India, but Muslim mathematicians made several key refinements to the number system, such as the introduction of decimal point notation. Mathematicians such as Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–850) gave his name to the concept of the algorithm, while the term algebra is derived from al-jabr, the beginning of the title of one of his publications. Islamic trigonometry continued from the works of Ptolemy's Almagest and Indian Siddhanta, from which they added trigonometric functions, drew up tables, and applied trigonometry to spheres and planes. Many of their engineers, instruments makers, and surveyors contributed books in applied mathematics. It was in astronomy where Islamic mathematicians made their greatest contributions. Al-Battani (c. 858–929) improved the measurements of Hipparchus, preserved in the translation of Ptolemy's Hè Megalè Syntaxis (The great treatise) translated as Almagest. Al-Battani also improved the precision of the measurement of the precession of the Earth's axis. Corrections were made to Ptolemy's geocentric model by al-Battani, Ibn al-Haytham, Averroes and


id: history-of-science-20260505-11
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science-11.md
category: reference
title: History of science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:13.353605+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== Medieval universities ==== An intellectual revitalization of Western Europe started with the birth of medieval universities in the 12th century. These urban institutions grew from the informal scholarly activities of learned friars who visited monasteries, consulted libraries, and conversed with other fellow scholars. A friar who became well-known would attract a following of disciples, giving rise to a brotherhood of scholars (or collegium in Latin). A collegium might travel to a town or request a monastery to host them. However, if the number of scholars within a collegium grew too large, they would opt to settle in a town instead. As the number of collegia within a town grew, the collegia might request that their king grant them a charter that would convert them into a universitas. Many universities were chartered during this period, with the first in Bologna in 1088, followed by Paris in 1150, Oxford in 1167, and Cambridge in 1231. The granting of a charter meant that the medieval universities were partially sovereign and independent from local authorities. Their independence allowed them to conduct themselves and judge their own members based on their own rules. Furthermore, as initially religious institutions, their faculties and students were protected


id: history-of-science-20260505-12
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science-12.md
category: reference
title: History of science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:13.353605+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== Medieval science ==== The first half of the 14th century saw much important scientific work, largely within the framework of scholastic commentaries on Aristotle's scientific writings. William of Ockham emphasized the principle of parsimony: natural philosophers should not postulate unnecessary entities, so that motion is not a distinct thing but is only the moving object and an intermediary "sensible species" is not needed to transmit an image of an object to the eye. Scholars such as Jean Buridan and Nicole Oresme started to reinterpret elements of Aristotle's mechanics. In particular, Buridan developed the theory that impetus was the cause of the motion of projectiles, which was a first step towards the modern concept of inertia. The Oxford Calculators began to mathematically analyze the kinematics of motion, making this analysis without considering the causes of motion. In 1348, the Black Death and other disasters sealed a sudden end to philosophic and scientific development. == Renaissance == === Printing and discovery === The introduction and rapid spread of the movable type printing press during the 2nd half of the 15th century ended the manuscript culture of the Middle Ages, where facts were few and far between, and replaced it with a


id: history-of-science-20260505-13
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science-13.md
category: reference
title: History of science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:13.353605+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Scientific societies and journals === A critical innovation was the creation of permanent scientific societies and their scholarly journals, which dramatically sped the diffusion of new ideas. Typical was the founding of the Royal Society in London in 1660 and its journal in 1665 the Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society, the first scientific journal in English. 1665 also saw the first journal in French, the Journal des sçavans. Science drawing on the works of Newton, Descartes, Pascal and Leibniz, science was on a path to modern mathematics, physics and technology by the time of the generation of Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783). Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie, published between 1751 and 1772 brought this new understanding to a wider audience. The impact of this process was not limited to science and technology, but affected philosophy (Immanuel Kant, David Hume), religion (the increasingly significant impact of science upon religion), and society and politics in general (Adam Smith, Voltaire). === Developments in geology === Geology did not undergo systematic restructuring during the Scientific Revolution but instead existed as a cloud of isolated, disconnected ideas about rocks, minerals, and landforms long before it


id: history-of-science-20260505-14
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science-14.md
category: reference
title: History of science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:13.353605+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Developments in mathematics === In mathematics, the notion of complex numbers finally matured and led to a subsequent analytical theory; they also began the use of hypercomplex numbers. Karl Weierstrass and others carried out the arithmetization of analysis for functions of real and complex variables. It also saw rise to new progress in geometry beyond those classical theories of Euclid, after a period of nearly two thousand years. The mathematical science of logic likewise had revolutionary breakthroughs after a similarly long period of stagnation. But the most important step in science at this time were the ideas formulated by the creators of electrical science. Their work changed the face of physics and made possible for new technology to come about such as electric power, electrical telegraphy, the telephone, and radio. === Developments in chemistry === In chemistry, Dmitri Mendeleev, following the atomic theory of John Dalton, created the first periodic table of elements. Other highlights include the discoveries unveiling the nature of atomic structure and matter, simultaneously with chemistry – and of new kinds of radiation. The theory that all matter is made of atoms, which are the smallest constituents of matter that cannot be broken down without losing


id: history-of-science-20260505-15
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science-15.md
category: reference
title: History of science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:13.353605+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Founding of psychology === Psychology as a scientific enterprise that was independent from philosophy began in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research (in Leipzig). Other important early contributors to the field include Hermann Ebbinghaus (a pioneer in memory studies), Ivan Pavlov (who discovered classical conditioning), William James, and Sigmund Freud. Freud's influence has been enormous, though more as cultural icon than a force in scientific psychology. === Modern sociology === Modern sociology emerged in the early 19th century as the academic response to the modernization of the world. Among many early sociologists (e.g., Émile Durkheim), the aim of sociology was in structuralism, understanding the cohesion of social groups, and developing an "antidote" to social disintegration. Max Weber was concerned with the modernization of society through the concept of rationalization, which he believed would trap individuals in an "iron cage" of rational thought. Some sociologists, including Georg Simmel and W. E. B. Du Bois, used more microsociological, qualitative analyses. This microlevel approach played an important role in American sociology, with the theories of George Herbert Mead and his student Herbert Blumer resulting in the creation of the symbolic interactionism approach to sociology. In


id: history-of-science-20260505-16
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science-16.md
category: reference
title: History of science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:13.353605+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
In the early 20th century, the study of heredity became a major investigation after the rediscovery in 1900 of the laws of inheritance developed by Mendel. The 20th century also saw the integration of physics and chemistry, with chemical properties explained as the result of the electronic structure of the atom. Linus Pauling's book on The Nature of the Chemical Bond used the principles of quantum mechanics to deduce bond angles in ever-more complicated molecules. Pauling's work culminated in the physical modelling of DNA, the secret of life (in the words of Francis Crick, 1953). In the same year, the Miller–Urey experiment demonstrated in a simulation of primordial processes, that basic constituents of proteins, simple amino acids, could themselves be built up from simpler molecules, kickstarting decades of research into the chemical origins of life. By 1953, James D. Watson and Francis Crick clarified the basic structure of DNA, the genetic material for expressing life in all its forms, building on the work of Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, suggested that the structure of DNA was a double helix. In their famous paper "Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids" In the late 20th century, the possibilities of genetic engineering became practical


id: history-of-science-20260505-17
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science-17.md
category: reference
title: History of science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:13.353605+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Applications === In terms of applications, a massive number of new technologies were developed in the 20th century. Technologies such as electricity, the incandescent light bulb, the automobile and the phonograph, first developed at the end of the 19th century, were perfected and universally deployed. The first car was introduced by Karl Benz in 1885. The first airplane flight occurred in 1903, and by the end of the century airliners flew thousands of miles in a matter of hours. The development of the radio, television and computers caused massive changes in the dissemination of information. Advances in biology also led to large increases in food production, as well as the elimination of diseases such as polio by Dr. Jonas Salk. Gene mapping and gene sequencing, invented by Drs. Mark Skolnik and Walter Gilbert, respectively, are the two technologies that made the Human Genome Project feasible. Computer science, built upon a foundation of theoretical linguistics, discrete mathematics, and electrical engineering, studies the nature and limits of computation. Subfields include computability, computational complexity, database design, computer networking, artificial intelligence, and the design of computer hardware. One area in which advances in computing have contributed to more general scientific development is by


id: history-of-science-20260505-18
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science-18.md
category: reference
title: History of science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:13.353605+00:00
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parent: history-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
== 21st century == In the early 21st century, some concepts that originated in 20th century physics were proven. On 4 July 2012, physicists working at CERN's Large Hadron Collider announced that they had discovered a new subatomic particle greatly resembling the Higgs boson, confirmed as such by the following March. Gravitational waves were first detected by astronomers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory on 14 September 2015. One of the first direct images of a black hole, taken by the Event Horizon Telescope in April of 2017, was released to the public on April 10, 2019. The Human Genome Project was declared complete in 2003. The CRISPR gene editing technique developed in 2012 allowed scientists to precisely and easily modify DNA in living organisms and led to the development of new medicine. Advances in synthetic biology with computer assistance led to the creation of artificial microbial life, such as JCVI-syn3.0 in 2016 and xenobots in 2020. Positive psychology is a branch of psychology founded in 1998 by Martin Seligman that is concerned with the study of happiness, mental well-being, and positive human functioning, and is a reaction to 20th century psychology's emphasis on mental illness and dysfunction. Starting around


id: history-and-philosophy-of-science-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_and_philosophy_of_science-0.md
category: reference
title: History and philosophy of science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_and_philosophy_of_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:14.472676+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-and-philosophy-of-science-20260505-0
summary:
The history and philosophy of science (HPS) is an academic discipline that encompasses the philosophy of science and the history of science. Although many scholars in the field are trained primarily as either historians or as philosophers, there are degree-granting departments of HPS at several prominent universities. Though philosophy of science and history of science are their own disciplines, history and philosophy of science is a discipline in its own right. Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultimate purpose of science. This discipline overlaps with metaphysics/ontology and epistemology, for example, when it explores the relationship between science and truth. Philosophy of science focuses on metaphysical, epistemic and semantic aspects of science. Ethical issues such as bioethics and scientific misconduct are often considered ethics or science studies rather than philosophy of science. There is no consensus among philosophers about many of the central problems concerned with the philosophy of science, including whether science can reveal the truth about unobservable things and whether scientific reasoning can be justified at all. In addition to


id: history-of-science-and-technology-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology-0.md
category: reference
title: History of science and technology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:15.701574+00:00
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parent: history-of-science-and-technology-20260505-0
summary:
The history of science and technology (HST) is a field of history that examines the development of the understanding of the natural world (science) and humans' ability to manipulate it (technology) at different points in time. This academic discipline also examines the cultural, economic, and political context and impacts of scientific practices; it likewise may study the consequences of new technologies on existing scientific fields. == Academic study of history of science == History of science is an academic discipline with an international community of specialists. Main professional organizations for this field include the History of Science Society, the British Society for the History of Science, and the European Society for the History of Science. Much of the study of the history of science has been devoted to answering questions about what science is, how it functions, and whether it exhibits large-scale patterns and trends. === History of the academic study of history of science === Histories of science were originally written by practicing and retired scientists, starting primarily with William Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences (1837), as a way to communicate the virtues of science to the public. Auguste Comte proposed that there should be a specific discipline


id: history-of-science-and-technology-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology-1.md
category: reference
title: History of science and technology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:15.701574+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-science-and-technology-20260505-0
summary:
=== India === History of science and technology is a well-developed field in India. At least three generations of scholars can be identified. The first generation includes D.D.Kosambi, Dharmpal, Debiprasad Chattopadhyay and Rahman. The second generation mainly consists of Ashis Nandy, Deepak Kumar, Dhruv Raina, S. Irfan Habib, Shiv Visvanathan, Gyan Prakash, Stan Lourdswamy, V.V. Krishna, Itty Abraham, Richard Grove, Kavita Philip, Mira Nanda and Rob Anderson. There is an emergent third generation that includes scholars like Abha Sur and Jahnavi Phalkey. Departments and Programmes The National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies had a research group active in the 1990s which consolidated social history of science as a field of research in India. Currently there are several institutes and university departments offering HST programmes. Jawaharlal Nehru University has an Mphil-PhD program that offers specialisation in Social History of Science. It is at the History of Science and Education group of the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies (ZHCES) in the School of Social Sciences. Renowned Indian science historians Deepak Kumar and Dhruv Raina teach here. Also, *Centre for Studies in Science Policy has an Mphil-PhD program that offers specialization in Science, Technology, and Society along with various allied


id: history-of-science-and-technology-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology-2.md
category: reference
title: History of science and technology
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:15.701574+00:00
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parent: history-of-science-and-technology-20260505-0
summary:
=== United States === Academic study of the history of science as an independent discipline was launched by George Sarton at Harvard with his book Introduction to the History of Science (1927) and the Isis journal (founded in 1912). Sarton exemplified the early 20th century view of the history of science as the history of great men and great ideas. He shared with many of his contemporaries a Whiggish belief in history as a record of the advances and delays in the march of progress. The History of Science was not a recognized subfield of American history in this period, and most of the work was carried out by interested scientists and physicians rather than professional historians. With the work of I. Bernard Cohen at Harvard, the history of Science became an established subdiscipline of history after 1945. Arizona State University's Center for Biology and Society offers several paths for MS or PhD students who are interested in issues surrounding the history and philosophy of the science. California Institute of Technology offers courses in the History and Philosophy of Science to fulfill its core humanities requirements. Case Western Reserve University has an undergraduate interdisciplinary program in the History and Philosophy


id: academic-family-tree-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Family_Tree-0.md
category: reference
title: Academic Family Tree
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Family_Tree
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:16.822511+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: academic-family-tree-20260505-0
summary:
The Academic Family Tree, which began as Neurotree, is an online database for academic genealogy, containing numerous "family trees" of academic disciplines. Neurotree was established in 2005 as a family tree of neuroscientists. Later that year Academic Family Tree incorporated Neurotree and family trees of other scholarly disciplines. Unlike a conventional genealogy or family tree, in which connections among individuals are from kinship (e.g., parents to children), connections in Academic Family Tree are from mentoring relationships, usually among people working in academic settings (e.g., doctoral supervisors to students). Academic Family Tree has been used as sources of information for the history and prospects of academic fields such as psychology, meteorology, organizational communication, and neuroscience. It has been used to address infometrics, to research issues of scientific methodology, and to examine mentor characteristics that predict mentee academic success. == Functioning and scope == The founders of the initial trees, including Neurotree, populated them from published sources, such as ProQuest. Later, they set up discipline-specific family trees of Academic Family Tree to be volunteer-run; accuracy is maintained by a group of volunteer editors. Hierarchical connections between mentors ("parents") and mentees ("children") are defined as any meaningful mentoring relationship (research assistant, graduate student,


id: academic-genealogy-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_genealogy-0.md
category: reference
title: Academic genealogy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_genealogy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:18.077766+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: academic-genealogy-20260505-0
summary:
An academic genealogy (or scientific genealogy) organizes a family tree of scientists and scholars according to mentoring relationships, often in the form of dissertation supervision relationships, and not according to genetic relationships as in conventional genealogy. Since the term academic genealogy has now developed this specific meaning, its additional use to describe a more academic approach to conventional genealogy would be ambiguous, so the description scholarly genealogy is now generally used in the latter context. == Overview == The academic lineage or academic ancestry of someone is a chain of professors who have served as academic mentors or thesis advisors of each other, ending with the person in question. Many genealogical terms are often recast in terms of academic lineages, so one may speak of academic descendants, children, siblings, etc. One method of developing an academic genealogy is to organize individuals by prioritizing their degree of relationship to a mentor/advisor as follows: (1). doctoral students, (2). post-doctoral researchers, (3). master's students and (4). current students, including undergraduate researchers. Through the 19th century, particularly for graduates in sciences such as chemistry, it was common to have completed a degree in medicine or pharmacy before continuing with post-graduate or post-doctoral studies. Until


id: aether-classical-element-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(classical_element)-0.md
category: reference
title: Aether (classical element)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(classical_element)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:19.204985+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: aether-classical-element-20260505-0
summary:
According to ancient and medieval science, aether (, alternative spellings include æther, aither, and ether), also known as the fifth element or quintessence, is the material that fills the region of the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere. The concept of aether was used in several theories to explain several natural phenomena, such as the propagation of light and gravity. In the late 19th century, physicists postulated that aether permeated space, providing a medium through which light could travel in a vacuum, but evidence for the presence of such a medium was not found in the Michelson–Morley experiment, and this result has been interpreted to mean that no luminiferous aether exists. == Mythological origins == The word αἰθήρ (aithḗr) in Homeric Greek means "pure, fresh air" or "clear sky". In Greek mythology, it was thought to be the pure essence that the gods breathed, filling the space where they lived, analogous to the air breathed by mortals. It is also personified as a deity, Aether, the son of Erebus and Nyx in traditional Greek mythology. Aether is related to αἴθω "to incinerate", and intransitive "to burn, to shine" (related is the name Aithiopes (Ethiopians; see Aethiopia), meaning "people with a burnt


id: aether-classical-element-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(classical_element)-1.md
category: reference
title: Aether (classical element)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(classical_element)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:19.204985+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: aether-classical-element-20260505-0
summary:
The motion of light was a long-standing investigation in physics for hundreds of years before the 20th century. The use of aether to describe this motion was popular during the 17th and 18th centuries, including a theory proposed by Johann II Bernoulli, who was recognized in 1736 with the prize of the French Academy. In his theory, all space is permeated by aether containing "excessively small whirlpools". These whirlpools allow for aether to have a certain elasticity, transmitting vibrations from the corpuscular packets of light as they travel through. This theory of luminiferous aether would influence the wave theory of light proposed by Christiaan Huygens, in which light traveled in the form of longitudinal waves via an "omnipresent, perfectly elastic medium having zero density, called aether". At the time, it was thought that in order for light to travel through a vacuum, there must have been a medium filling the void through which it could propagate, as sound through air or ripples in a pool. Later, when it was proved that the nature of light wave is transverse instead of longitudinal, Huygens' theory was replaced by subsequent theories proposed by Maxwell, Einstein and de Broglie, which rejected the existence and


id: alchemy-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-0.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
Alchemy (from the Arabic word al-kīmīā, الكیمیاء) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts written in Greco-Roman Egypt during the first few centuries AD. Greek-speaking alchemists often referred to their craft as "the Art" (τέχνη) or "Knowledge" (ἐπιστήμη), and it was often characterised as mystic (μυστική), sacred (ἱɛρά), or divine (θɛíα). Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of "base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; and the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to result from the alchemical magnum opus ("Great Work"). The concept of creating the philosopher's stone was variously connected with all of these projects. Islamic and European alchemists developed a basic set of laboratory techniques, theories, and terms, some of which are still in use today. They did not abandon the Ancient Greek philosophical idea that everything is composed of four elements, and they tended to


id: alchemy-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-1.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
The start of Western alchemy may generally be traced to Hellenistic Egypt, where the city of Alexandria was a center of alchemical knowledge, and retained its pre-eminence through most of the Greek and Roman periods. Following the work of André-Jean Festugière, modern scholars see alchemical practice in the Roman Empire as originating from the Egyptian goldsmith's art, Greek philosophy and different religious traditions. Tracing the origins of the alchemical art in Egypt is complicated by the pseudepigraphic nature of texts from the Greek alchemical corpus. The treatises of Zosimos of Panopolis, the earliest historically attested author (fl. c. 300), can help in situating the other authors. Zosimus based his work on that of older alchemical authors, such as Mary the Jewess, Pseudo-Democritus, and Agathodaimon, but very little is known about any of these authors. The most complete of their works, the Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus, were probably written in the first century AD. Recent scholarship tends to emphasize the testimony of Zosimus, who traced the alchemical arts back to Egyptian metallurgical and ceremonial practices. It has also been argued that early alchemical writers borrowed the vocabulary of Greek philosophical schools but did not implement any of its doctrines in a


id: alchemy-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-2.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
True alchemy never regarded earth, air, water, and fire as corporeal or chemical substances in the present-day sense of the word. The four elements are simply the primary, and most general, qualities by means of which the amorphous and purely quantitative substance of all bodies first reveals itself in differentiated form." Later alchemists extensively developed the mystical aspects of this concept. Alchemy coexisted alongside emerging Christianity. Lactantius believed Hermes Trismegistus had prophesied its birth. Augustine of Hippo later affirmed this in the 4th and 5th centuries, but also condemned Trismegistus for idolatry. Examples of pagan, Christian, and Jewish alchemists can be found during this period. Most of the Greco-Roman alchemists preceding Zosimos are known only by pseudonyms, such as Moses of Alexandria, Isis, Cleopatra the Alchemist, Pseudo-Democritus, and Ostanes. Other authors such as Komarios and Chymes are known only through surviving fragments of text. After AD 400, Greek alchemical writers occupied themselves solely in commenting on the works of these predecessors. By the middle of the 7th century, alchemy was almost an entirely mystical discipline. It was at that time that Khalid Ibn Yazid sparked its migration from Alexandria to the Islamic world, facilitating the translation and preservation of Greek


id: alchemy-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-3.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
To form an idea of the historical place of Jabir's alchemy and to tackle the problem of its sources, it is advisable to compare it with what remains to us of the alchemical literature in the Greek language. One knows in which miserable state this literature reached us. Collected by Byzantine scientists from the tenth century, the corpus of the Greek alchemists is a cluster of incoherent fragments, going back to all the times since the third century until the end of the Middle Ages. The efforts of Berthelot and Ruelle to put a little order in this mass of literature led only to poor results, and the later researchers, among them in particular Mrs. Hammer-Jensen, Tannery, Lagercrantz, von Lippmann, Reitzenstein, Ruska, Bidez, Festugière and others, could make clear only few points of detail .... The study of the Greek alchemists is not very encouraging. An even surface examination of the Greek texts shows that a very small part only was organized according to true experiments of laboratory: even the supposedly technical writings, in the state where we find them today, are unintelligible nonsense which refuses any interpretation. It is different with Jabir's alchemy. The relatively clear description of the


id: alchemy-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-4.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
Whereas European alchemy eventually centered on the transmutation of base metals into noble metals, Chinese alchemy had a more obvious connection to medicine. The philosopher's stone of European alchemists can be compared to the elixir of life sought by Chinese alchemists. In the Hermetic view, these two goals were not unconnected, and the philosopher's stone was often equated with the universal panacea; therefore, the two traditions may have had more in common than initially appears. As early as 317 AD, Ge Hong documented the use of metals, minerals, and elixirs in early Chinese medicine. Hong identified three ancient Chinese documents—titled the Scripture of Great Clarity, the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs, and the Scripture of the Golden Liquor—as texts containing fundamental alchemical information. He also described alchemy, along with meditation, as the sole spiritual practices that could allow one to gain immortality or to transcend to a higher state of being. In his work Inner Chapters of the Book of the Master Who Embraces Spontaneous Nature (317 AD), Hong argued that alchemical solutions such as elixirs were preferable to traditional medicinal treatment due to the spiritual protection they could provide. In the centuries following Ge Hong's death, the emphasis placed


id: alchemy-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-5.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
The introduction of alchemy to Latin Europe may be dated to 11 February 1144, with the completion of Robert of Chester's translation of the Liber de compositione alchemiae (Book on the Composition of Alchemy) from an Arabic work attributed to Khalid ibn Yazid. Although European craftsmen and technicians pre-existed, Robert notes in his preface that alchemy (here still referring to the elixir rather than to the art itself) was unknown in Latin Europe at the time of his writing. The translation of Arabic texts concerning numerous disciplines including alchemy flourished in 12th-century Toledo, Spain, through contributors like Gerard of Cremona and Adelard of Bath. Translations of the time included the Turba Philosophorum, and the works of Avicenna and Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi. These brought with them many new words to the European vocabulary for which there was no previous Latin equivalent. Alcohol, carboy, elixir, and athanor are examples. Meanwhile, theologian contemporaries of the translators made strides towards the reconciliation of faith and experimental rationalism, thereby priming Europe for the influx of alchemical thought. The 11th-century theologian Anselm of Canterbury put forth the opinion that faith and rationalism were compatible and encouraged rationalism in a Christian context. In the early 12th


id: alchemy-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-6.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
In the 14th century, alchemy became more accessible to Europeans outside the confines of Latin-speaking churchmen and scholars. Alchemical discourse shifted from scholarly philosophical debate to an exposed social commentary on the alchemists themselves. Dante, Piers Plowman, and Chaucer all painted unflattering pictures of alchemists as thieves and liars. Pope John XXII's 1317 edict Spondent quas non-exhibent forbade the false promises of transmutation made by pseudo-alchemists. Roman Catholic Inquisitor General Nicholas Eymerich's Directorium Inquisitorum, written in 1376, associated alchemy with the performance of demonic rituals, which Eymerich differentiated from magic performed in accordance with Christian scripture. This did not, however, lead to any change in the Inquisition's monitoring or prosecution of alchemists. In 1404, Henry IV of England banned the practice of multiplying metals by the passing of the Gold and Silver Act 1403 (5 Hen. 4. c. 4) (although it was possible to buy a licence to attempt to make gold alchemically, and a number were granted by Henry VI and Edward IV). These critiques and regulations centered more around pseudo-alchemical charlatanism than the actual study of alchemy, which continued with an increasingly Christian tone. The 14th century saw the Christian imagery of death and resurrection employed in the


id: alchemy-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-7.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
Although most of these appointments were legitimate, the trend of pseudo-alchemical fraud continued through the Renaissance. Betrüger would use sleight of hand, or claims of secret knowledge to make money or secure patronage. Legitimate mystical and medical alchemists such as Michael Maier and Heinrich Khunrath wrote about fraudulent transmutations, distinguishing themselves from the con artists. False alchemists were sometimes prosecuted for fraud. The terms "chemia" and "alchemia" were used as synonyms in the early modern period, and the differences between alchemy, chemistry and small-scale assaying and metallurgy were not as neat as in the present day. There were important overlaps between practitioners, and trying to classify them into alchemists, chemists and craftsmen is anachronistic. For example, Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), an alchemist better known for his astronomical and astrological investigations, had a laboratory built at his Uraniborg observatory/research institute. Michael Sendivogius (Michał Sędziwój, 1566–1636), a Polish alchemist, philosopher, medical doctor and pioneer of chemistry wrote mystical works but is also credited with distilling oxygen in a lab sometime around 1600. Sendivogious taught his technique to Cornelius Drebbel who, in 1621, applied this in a submarine. Isaac Newton devoted considerably more of his writing to the study of alchemy (see Isaac Newton's


id: alchemy-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-8.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
=== Women === Several women appear in the earliest history of alchemy. Michael Maier names four women who were able to make the philosophers' stone: Mary the Jewess, Cleopatra the Alchemist, Medera, and Taphnutia. Zosimos's sister Theosebia (later known as Euthica the Arab) and Isis the Prophetess also played roles in early alchemical texts. The first alchemist whose name we know was Mary the Jewess (c. 200 A.D.). Early sources claim that Mary (or Maria) devised a number of improvements to alchemical equipment and tools as well as novel techniques in chemistry. Her best known advances were in heating and distillation processes. The laboratory water-bath, known eponymously (especially in France) as the bain-marie, is said to have been invented or at least improved by her. Essentially a double-boiler, it was (and is) used in chemistry for processes that required gentle heating. The tribikos (a modified distillation apparatus) and the kerotakis (a more intricate apparatus used especially for sublimations) are two other advancements in the process of distillation that are credited to her. Although we have no writing from Mary herself, she is known from the early-fourth-century writings of Zosimos of Panopolis. After the Greco-Roman period, women's names appear less frequently


id: alchemy-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-9.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
Western alchemical theory corresponds to the worldview of late antiquity in which it was born. Concepts were imported from Neoplatonism and earlier Greek cosmology. As such, the classical elements appear in alchemical writings, as do the seven classical planets and the corresponding seven metals of antiquity. Similarly, the gods of the Roman pantheon who are associated with these luminaries are discussed in alchemical literature. The concepts of prima materia and anima mundi are central to the theory of the philosopher's stone. === Magnum opus === The Great Work of Alchemy is often described as a series of four stages represented by colours. nigredo, a blackening or melanosis albedo, a whitening or leucosis citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis == Modernity == Due to the complexity and obscurity of alchemical literature, and the 18th-century diffusion of remaining alchemical practitioners into the area of chemistry, the general understanding of alchemy in the 19th and 20th centuries was influenced by several distinct and radically different interpretations. Those focusing on the exoteric, such as historians of science Lawrence M. Principe and William R. Newman, have interpreted the Decknamen ('code words') of alchemy as physical substances. These scholars have reconstructed


id: alchemy-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-10.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
Alchemy has had a long-standing relationship with art, evident in both alchemical texts and mainstream entertainment. Literary alchemy appears throughout the history of English literature from William Shakespeare to J. K. Rowling, and also the popular Japanese manga Fullmetal Alchemist. Here, characters or plot structure follow an alchemical magnum opus. In the 14th century, Chaucer began a trend of alchemical satire that can still be seen in recent fantasy works, such as those of the late Sir Terry Pratchett. Another literary work inspired by the alchemical tradition is the 1988 novel The Alchemist by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho. Visual artists have had a similar relationship with alchemy. While some used it as a source of satire, others worked with the alchemists themselves or integrated alchemical thought or symbols in their work. Music was also present in the works of alchemists and continues to influence popular performers. In the last hundred years, alchemists have been portrayed in a magical and spagyric role in fantasy fiction, film, television, novels, comics, and video games. === Science === One goal of alchemy, the transmutation of base substances into gold, is now known to be impossible by means of traditional chemistry, but possible by other


id: alchemy-20260505-11
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy-11.md
category: reference
title: Alchemy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:20.410298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alchemy-20260505-0
summary:
==== Studies ==== Dylan M. Burns, " μίξεώς τινι τέχνῃ κρείττονι : Alchemical Metaphor in the Paraphrase of Shem (NHC VII,1) ", Aries 15 (2015), p. 79–106. Alberto Camplani, " Procedimenti magico-alchemici e discorso filosofico ermetico " in Giuliana Lanata (ed.), Il Tardoantico alle soglie del Duemila, ETS, 2000, p. 73–98. Alberto Camplani and Marco Zambon, " Il sacrificio come problema in alcune correnti filosofice di età imperiale ", Annali di storia dell'esegesi 19 (2002), p. 59–99. Régine Charron and Louis Painchaud, " 'God is a Dyer,' The Background and Significance of a Puzzling Motif in the Coptic Gospel According to Philip (CG II, 3), Le Muséon 114 (2001), p. 41-50. Régine Charron, " The Apocryphon of John (NHC II,1) and the Greco-Egyptian Alchemical Literature ", Vigiliae Christinae 59 (2005), p. 438-456. Philippe Derchain, "L'Atelier des Orfèvres à Dendara et les origines de l'alchimie," Chronique d'Égypte, vol. 65, no 130, 1990, p. 219–242. Korshi Dosoo, " A History of the Theban Magical Library ", Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 53 (2016), p. 251–274. Olivier Dufault, Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity, California Classical Studies, 2019, Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity. Sergio


id: history-of-anthropometry-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthropometry-0.md
category: reference
title: History of anthropometry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthropometry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:21.668562+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-anthropometry-20260505-0
summary:
The history of anthropometry includes its use as an early tool of anthropology, use for identification, use for the purposes of understanding human physical variation in paleoanthropology and in various attempts to correlate physical with racial and psychological traits. At various points in history, certain anthropometrics have been cited by advocates of discrimination and eugenics often as a part of some social movement or through pseudoscientific claims. == Craniometry and paleoanthropology == In 1716 Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, who wrote many essays on comparative anatomy for the Académie française, published his Memoir on the Different Positions of the Occipital Foramen in Man and Animals (Mémoire sur les différences de la situation du grand trou occipital dans l'homme et dans les animaux). Six years later Pieter Camper (1722–1789), distinguished both as an artist and as an anatomist, published some lectures that laid the foundation of much work. Camper invented the "facial angle," a measure meant to determine intelligence among various species. According to this technique, a "facial angle" was formed by drawing two lines: one horizontally from the nostril to the ear; and the other perpendicularly from the advancing part of the upper jawbone to the most prominent part of the forehead. Camper's


id: history-of-anthropometry-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthropometry-1.md
category: reference
title: History of anthropometry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthropometry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:21.668562+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-anthropometry-20260505-0
summary:
In 1883, Frenchman Alphonse Bertillon introduced a system of identification that was named after him. The "Bertillonage" system was based on the finding that several measures of physical features, such as the dimensions of bony structures in the body, remain fairly constant throughout adult life. Bertillon concluded that when these measurements were made and recorded systematically, every individual would be distinguishable. Bertillon's goal was a way of identifying recidivists ("repeat offenders"). Previously police could only record general descriptions. Photography of criminals had become commonplace, but there was no easy way to sort the many thousands of photographs except by name. Bertillon's hope was that, through the use of measurements, a set of identifying numbers could be entered into a filing system installed in a single cabinet. The system involved 10 measurements; height, stretch (distance from left shoulder to middle finger of raised right arm), bust (torso from head to seat when seated), head length (crown to forehead) and head width temple to temple) width of cheeks, and "lengths" of the right ear, the left foot, middle finger, and cubit (elbow to tip of middle finger). It was possible, by exhaustion, to sort the cards on which these details were recorded


id: history-of-anthropometry-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthropometry-2.md
category: reference
title: History of anthropometry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthropometry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:21.668562+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-anthropometry-20260505-0
summary:
Phylogeography is the science of identifying and tracking major human migrations, especially in prehistoric times. Linguistics can follow the movement of languages and archaeology can follow the movement of artefact styles but neither can tell whether a culture's spread was due to a source population's physically migrating or to a destination population's simply copying the technology and learning the language. Anthropometry was used extensively by anthropologists studying human and racial origins: some attempted racial differentiation and classification, often seeking ways in which certain races were inferior to others. Nott translated Arthur de Gobineau's An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853–1855), a founding work of racial segregationism that made three main divisions between races, based not on colour but on climatic conditions and geographic location, and privileged the "Aryan" race. Science has tested many theories aligning race and personality, which have been current since Boulainvilliers (1658–1722) contrasted the Français (French people), alleged descendants of the Nordic Franks, and members of the aristocracy, to the Third Estate, considered to be indigenous Gallo-Roman people subordinated by right of conquest. François Bernier, Carl Linnaeus and Blumenbach had examined multiple observable human characteristics in search of a typology. Bernier based his racial


id: history-of-anthropometry-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthropometry-3.md
category: reference
title: History of anthropometry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthropometry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:21.668562+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-anthropometry-20260505-0
summary:
In Crania Americana Morton claimed that Caucasians had the biggest brains, averaging 87 cubic inches, Indians were in the middle with an average of 82 cubic inches and Negroes had the smallest brains with an average of 78 cubic inches. In 1873 Paul Broca (1824–1880) found the same pattern described by Samuel Morton's Crania Americana by weighing brains at autopsy. Other historical studies alleging a Black–White difference in brain size include Bean (1906), Mall, (1909), Pearl, (1934) and Vint (1934). But in Germany Rudolf Virchow's study led him to denounce "Nordic mysticism" in the 1885 Anthropology Congress in Karlsruhe. Josef Kollmann, a collaborator of Virchow, stated in the same congress that the people of Europe, be them German, Italian, English or French, belonged to a "mixture of various races," furthermore declaring that the "results of craniology" led to "struggle against any theory concerning the superiority of this or that European race". Virchow later rejected measure of skulls as legitimate means of taxonomy. Paul Kretschmer quoted an 1892 discussion with him concerning these criticisms, also citing Aurel von Törok's 1895 work, who basically proclaimed the failure of craniometry. Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) claimed Samuel Morton had fudged data and "overpacked" the


id: history-of-anthropometry-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthropometry-4.md
category: reference
title: History of anthropometry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthropometry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:21.668562+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-anthropometry-20260505-0
summary:
Caucasoid characterized by a tall dolichocephalic skull, receded zygomas, large brow ridge and projecting-narrow nasal apertures. Negroid characterized by a short dolichocephalic skull, receded zygomas and wide nasal apertures. Mongoloid characterized by a medium brachycephalic skull, projecting zygomas, small brow ridge and small nasal apertures. Ripley's The Races of Europe was rewritten in 1939 by Harvard physical anthropologist Carleton S. Coon. Coon, a 20th-century craniofacial anthropometrist, used the technique for his The Origin of Races (New York: Knopf, 1962). Because of the inconsistencies in the old three-part system (Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid), Coon adopted a five-part scheme. He defined "Caucasoid" as a pattern of skull measurements and other phenotypical characteristics typical of populations in Europe, Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, North Africa, and Northeast Africa (Ethiopia, and Somalia). He discarded the term "Negroid" as misleading since it implies skin tone, which is found at low latitudes around the globe and is a product of adaptation, and defined skulls typical of sub-Saharan Africa as "Congoid" and those of Southern Africa as "Capoid". Finally, he split "Australoid" from "Mongoloid" along a line roughly similar to the modern distinction between sinodonts in the north and sundadonts in the south. He argued that these


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-0.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
The Antikythera mechanism ( AN-tik-ih-THEER-ə, US also AN-ty-kih-) is an ancient Greek hand-powered orrery (model of the Solar System). It is the oldest known example of an analogue computer. It could be used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance. It could also be used to track the four-year cycle of athletic games similar to an olympiad, the cycle of the ancient Olympic Games. The artefact was among wreckage retrieved from a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in 1901. In 1902, during a visit to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, it was noticed by Greek politician Spyridon Stais as containing a gear, prompting the first study of the fragment by his cousin, Valerios Stais, the museum director. The device, housed in the remains of a wooden-framed case of (uncertain) overall size 34 cm × 18 cm × 9 cm (13.4 in × 7.1 in × 3.5 in), was found as one lump, later separated into three main fragments which are now divided into 82 separate fragments after conservation efforts. Four of these fragments contain gears, while inscriptions are found on many others. The largest gear is about 13 cm (5 in) in diameter


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-1.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
=== Origin === The Antikythera mechanism is generally referred to as the first known analogue computer. The quality and complexity of the mechanism's manufacture suggests it must have had undiscovered predecessors during the Hellenistic period. Its construction relied on theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers during the second century BC, and it is estimated to have been built in the late second century BC or the early first century BC. In 2008, research by the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project suggested the concept for the mechanism may have originated in the colonies of Corinth, since they identified the calendar on the Metonic Spiral as coming from Corinth, or one of its colonies in northwest Greece or Sicily. Syracuse was a colony of Corinth and the home of Archimedes, and the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project argued in 2008 that it might imply a connection with the school of Archimedes. It was demonstrated in 2017 that the calendar on the Metonic Spiral is of the Corinthian type, but cannot be that of Syracuse. Another theory suggests that coins found by Jacques Cousteau at the wreck site in the 1970s date to the time of the device's construction, and posits that


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-2.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
=== Operation === On the front face of the mechanism, there is a fixed ring dial representing the ecliptic, the twelve zodiacal signs marked off with equal 30-degree sectors. This matched with the Babylonian custom of assigning one twelfth of the ecliptic to each zodiac sign equally, even though the constellation boundaries were variable. Outside that dial is another ring which is rotatable, marked off with the months and days of the Sothic Egyptian calendar, twelve months of 30 days plus five intercalary days. The months are marked with the Egyptian names for the months transcribed into the Greek alphabet. The first task is to rotate the Egyptian calendar ring to match the current zodiac points. The Egyptian calendar ignored leap days, so it advanced through a full zodiac sign in about 120 years. The mechanism was operated by turning a small hand crank (now lost) which was linked via a crown gear to the largest gear, the four-spoked gear visible on the front of fragment A, gear b1. This moved the date pointer on the front dial, which would be set to the correct Egyptian calendar day. The year is not selectable, so it is necessary to know the


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-3.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
ΠΑΧΩΝ (Pashons) ΠΑΥΝΙ (Payni) ΕΠΙΦΙ (Epiphi) The other months have been reconstructed; some reconstructions of the mechanism omit the five days of the Egyptian intercalary month. The Zodiac dial contains Greek inscriptions of the members of the zodiac, which is believed to be adapted to the tropical month version rather than the sidereal: ΚΡΙΟΣ (Krios [Ram], Aries) ΤΑΥΡΟΣ (Tauros [Bull], Taurus) ΔΙΔΥΜΟΙ (Didymoi [Twins], Gemini) ΚΑΡΚΙΝΟΣ (Karkinos [Crab], Cancer) ΛΕΩΝ (Leon [Lion], Leo) ΠΑΡΘΕΝΟΣ (Parthenos [Maiden], Virgo) ΧΗΛΑΙ (Chelai [Scorpio's Claw or Zygos], Libra) ΣΚΟΡΠΙΟΣ (Skorpios [Scorpion], Scorpio) ΤΟΞΟΤΗΣ (Toxotes [Archer], Sagittarius) ΑΙΓΟΚΕΡΩΣ (Aigokeros [Goat-horned], Capricorn) ΥΔΡΟΧΟΟΣ (Hydrokhoos [Water carrier], Aquarius) ΙΧΘΥΕΣ (Ichthyes [Fish], Pisces) Also on the zodiac dial are single characters at specific points (see reconstruction at ref). They are keyed to a parapegma, a precursor of the modern day almanac inscribed on the front face above and beneath the dials. They mark the locations of longitudes on the ecliptic for specific stars. The parapegma above the dials reads (square brackets indicate inferred text): The parapegma beneath the dials reads: At least two pointers indicated positions of bodies upon the ecliptic. A lunar pointer indicated the position of the Moon, and a mean Sun pointer was shown, perhaps


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-4.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
The Saros dial is the main lower spiral dial on the rear of the mechanism. The Saros cycle is 18 years and 11+1⁄3 days long (6585.333... days), which is very close to 223 synodic months (6585.3211 days). It is defined as the cycle of repetition of the positions required to cause solar and lunar eclipses, and therefore, it could be used to predict them—not only the month, but the day and time of day. The cycle is approximately 8 hours longer than an integer number of days. Translated into global spin, that means an eclipse occurs not only eight hours later, but one-third of a rotation farther to the west. Glyphs in 51 of the 223 synodic month cells of the dial specify the occurrence of 38 lunar and 27 solar eclipses. Some of the abbreviations in the glyphs read: Σ = ΣΕΛΗΝΗ ("Selene", Moon) Η = ΗΛΙΟΣ ("Helios", Sun) H\M = ΗΜΕΡΑΣ ("Hemeras", of the day) ω\ρ = ωρα ("hora", hour) N\Y = ΝΥΚΤΟΣ ("Nuktos", of the night) The glyphs show whether the designated eclipse is solar or lunar, and give the day of the month and hour. Solar eclipses may not be visible at any given point, and


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-5.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
=== Gearing === The mechanism is remarkable for the level of miniaturisation and the complexity of its parts, which is comparable to that of 14th-century astronomical clocks. It has at least 30 gears, although mechanism expert Michael Wright has suggested the Greeks of this period were capable of implementing a system with many more gears. There is debate as to whether the mechanism had indicators for all five of the planets known to the ancient Greeks. No gearing for such a planetary display survives and all gears are accounted for—with the exception of one 63-toothed gear (r1) otherwise unaccounted for in fragment D. Fragment D is a small quasi-circular constriction that, according to Xenophon Moussas, has a gear inside a somewhat larger hollow gear. The inner gear moves inside the outer gear reproducing an epicyclical motion that, with a pointer, gives the position of planet Jupiter. The inner gear is numbered 45, "ME" in Greek, and the same number is written on two surfaces of this small cylindrical box. The purpose of the front face was to position astronomical bodies with respect to the celestial sphere along the ecliptic, in reference to the observer's position on the Earth. That is


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-6.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
It is very probable there were planetary dials, as the complicated motions and periodicities of all planets are mentioned in the manual of the mechanism. The exact position and mechanisms for the gears of the planets is unknown. There is no coaxial system except for the Moon. Fragment D that is an epicycloidal system, is considered as a planetary gear for Jupiter (Moussas, 2011, 2012, 2014) or a gear for the motion of the Sun (University of Thessaloniki group). The Sun gear is operated from the hand-operated crank (connected to gear a1, driving the large four-spoked mean Sun gear, b1) and in turn drives the rest of the gear sets. The Sun gear is b1/b2 and b2 has 64 teeth. It directly drives the date/mean sun pointer (there may have been a second, "true sun" pointer that displayed the Sun's elliptical anomaly; it is discussed below in the Freeth reconstruction). In this discussion, reference is to modelled rotational period of various pointers and indicators; they all assume the input rotation of the b1 gear of 360 degrees, corresponding with one tropical year, and are computed solely on the basis of the gear ratios of the gears named. The Moon train


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-7.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
=== Proposed gear schemes === Because of the large space between the mean Sun gear and the front of the case and the size of and mechanical features on the mean Sun gear, it is very likely that the mechanism contained further gearing that either has been lost in or subsequent to the shipwreck, or was removed before being loaded onto the ship. This lack of evidence and nature of the front part of the mechanism has led to attempts to emulate what the Ancient Greeks would have done and because of the lack of evidence, many solutions have been put forward over the years. But as progress has been made on analyzing the internal structures and deciphering the inscriptions, earlier models have been ruled out and better models developed. Derek J. de Solla Price built a simple model in the 1970s. In 2002 Michael Wright designed and built the first workable model with the known mechanism and his emulation of a potential planetarium system. He suggested that along with the lunar anomaly, adjustments would have been made for the deeper, more basic solar anomaly (known as the "first anomaly"). He included pointers for this "true sun", Mercury, Venus, Mars,


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-8.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
The system to synthesise the solar anomaly is very similar to that used in Wright's proposal: three gears, one fixed in the centre of the b1 gear and attached to the Sun spindle, the second fixed on one of the spokes (in their proposal the one on the bottom left) acting as an idle gear, and the final positioned next to that one; the final gear is fitted with an offset pin and, over said pin, an arm with a slot that in turn, is attached to the sun spindle, inducing anomaly as the mean Sun wheel turns. The inferior planet mechanism includes the Sun (treated as a planet in this context), Mercury, and Venus. For each of the three systems, there is an epicyclic gear whose axis is mounted on b1, thus the basic frequency is the Earth year (as it is, in truth, for epicyclic motion in the Sun and all the planets—excepting only the Moon). Each meshes with a gear grounded to the mechanism frame. Each has a pin mounted, potentially on an extension of one side of the gear that enlarges the gear, but doesn't interfere with the teeth; in some cases, the needed distance between


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-9.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
In short, the Antikythera Mechanism was a machine designed to predict celestial phenomena according to the sophisticated astronomical theories current in its day, the sole witness to a lost history of brilliant engineering, a conception of pure genius, one of the great wonders of the ancient world—but it didn't really work very well! In addition to theoretical accuracy, there is the issue of mechanical accuracy. Freeth and Jones note that the inevitable "looseness" in the mechanism due to the hand-built gears, with their triangular teeth and the frictions between gears, and in bearing surfaces, probably would have swamped the finer solar and lunar correction mechanisms built into it: Though the engineering was remarkable for its era, recent research indicates that its design conception exceeded the engineering precision of its manufacture by a wide margin—with considerable cumulative inaccuracies in the gear trains, which would have cancelled out many of the subtle anomalies built into its design. While the device may have struggled with inaccuracies, due to the triangular teeth being hand-made, the calculations used and technology implemented to create the elliptical paths of the planets and retrograde motion of the Moon and Mars, by using a clockwork-type gear train with the


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-10.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
Pappus of Alexandria (290 – c. 350 AD) stated that Archimedes had written a now lost manuscript on the construction of these devices titled On Sphere-Making. The surviving texts from ancient times describe many of his creations, some even containing simple drawings. One such device is his odometer, the exact model later used by the Romans to place their mile markers (described by Vitruvius, Heron of Alexandria and in the time of Emperor Commodus). The drawings in the text appeared functional, but attempts to build them as pictured had failed. When the gears pictured, which had square teeth, were replaced with gears of the type in the Antikythera mechanism, which were angled, the device was perfectly functional. If Cicero's account is correct, then this technology existed as early as the third century BC. Archimedes' device is also mentioned by later Roman era writers such as Lactantius (Divinarum Institutionum Libri VII), Claudian (In sphaeram Archimedes), and Proclus (Commentary on the first book of Euclid's Elements of Geometry) in the fourth and fifth centuries. Cicero also said that another such device was built "recently" by his friend Posidonius, "... each one of the revolutions of which brings about the same movement in


id: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-11
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism-11.md
category: reference
title: Antikythera mechanism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:10:22.835554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: antikythera-mechanism-20260505-0
summary:
Several exhibitions have been staged worldwide, leading to the main "Antikythera shipwreck" exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. As of 2012, the Antikythera mechanism was displayed as part of a temporary exhibition about the Antikythera shipwreck, accompanied by reconstructions made by Ioannis Theofanidis, Derek de Solla Price, Michael Wright, the Thessaloniki University and Dionysios Kriaris. Other reconstructions are on display at the American Computer Museum in Bozeman, Montana, at the Children's Museum of Manhattan in New York, at Astronomisch-Physikalisches Kabinett in Kassel, Germany, at the Archimedes Museum in Olympia, Greece, at the Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology in Athens, at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris and at the Western Australian Museum. The National Geographic documentary series Naked Science dedicated an episode to the Antikythera Mechanism entitled "Star Clock BC" that aired on 20 January 2011. A documentary, The World's First Computer, was produced in 2012 by the Antikythera mechanism researcher and film-maker Tony Freeth. In 2012, BBC Four aired The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Computer; it was also aired on 3 April 2013 in the United States on NOVA, the PBS science series, under the name Ancient Computer. It documents the discovery and 2005 investigation of the


