Antikythera Mechanism

A group of scientists from the U.K. and Greece led by Mike Edmunds, an astronomer from the University of Cardiff, has unlocked a code more ancient and mysterious than those found in Foucault's Pendulum or The Da Vinci Code. The team has deciphered the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient computer named for the Greek island where it was discovered.

The top image is the main fragment of the original bronze mechanism. Below is the scientists' computer-generated re-creation.

Copyright/credit Jo Marchant, Nature/Copyright of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project

November 30, 2006 12:13 PM PST

Photo by: Nature/Antikythera Mechanism Research Project