Naked Science 8|科学新发现 8

by Marcus Maurice

Move over, Bill Gates; the Greeks were the real originators of the PC.

In October of 1900, a group of Greek divers were forced to move off course because of a storm. They anchored near the island of Antikythera and decided on a few dives there. Underwater, they made the fantastic discovery of a shipwreck, and with the help of some Greek archeologists, brought up several fine bronze and marble statues. This created a lot of excitement, but with the tools at the time, it was impossible to get everything out of the water, so the efforts were abandoned in 1902.

An expert looking through the finds afterwards noticed that there were gears in one of the rock fragments. This mechanism, which has been called more important than Mona Lisa, is a clock that can calculate the motions of the stars and planets. With more than 30 different gears, the star clock resembles a well-made 19th-century timepiece. The thing that makes this device so mysterious is that it is over 2,000 years old. There are no archeological records to suggest that Greeks were capable of creating something this complex. For decades after the discovery, scientists were baffled by the star clock, while the Greek National Archeological Museum in Athens zealously guarded this treasure.

This month on National Geographic Channel's Naked Science 8, two professional model makers, Chris Weisbart and Maris Ensing, use X-ray technology to rebuild the star clock and understand the ancient mechanism. The show also interviews experts from London to New York City to Seattle to figure out if the phenomenal artifact is a calendar computer, a planetarium, an eclipse predictor, or all three.

科学新发现 8

比尔‧盖兹让一让，希腊人才是个人计算机的始祖。

1900 年的 10 月，一群希腊潜水者因为一场暴风雨被迫离开原本潜水的路径。他们把船停靠在安提基瑟拉这座小岛附近，并决定在这里潜下水瞧瞧。在水底，他们有惊人的发现，看到 1 艘沉船遗骸，在一些希腊考古学家的帮助下，他们把数个青铜和大理石雕像运上岸。这个发现相当振奋人心，但当时的工具不够先进，无法把所有的东西都运上岸，所以在 1902 年宣告放弃这个行动。

　　事后，有名专家在检视当时的发现物时，注意到其中 1 块岩石碎片中卡了好几个齿轮。这个机械装置是个能计算星体和行星运行的时钟，被称为是比《蒙娜莉萨》还重要的发现。这座星辰仪由 30 多个齿轮构成，近似 19 世纪制作精良的定时器。而这个仪器如此神秘的原因在于它已有 2,000 多年的历史。没有任何考古纪录可左证当时的希腊人有能力制作出这样复杂的物品。这个发现出土的数十年后，在科学家都对这座星辰仪困惑不已的同时，雅典的国立考古博物馆尽心尽力地守护这个珍宝。

　　这个月国家地理频道的《科学新发现 8》节目中，2位专业模型师 Chris Weisbart 和 Maris Ensing 利用 X 光科技来重建星辰仪，并了解这个古老的机械装置。节目同时会访问来自伦敦、纽约和西雅图等各地的专家来说明这个惊人的古物功能究竟是日历计算器、天象仪、日月蚀预测器，还是以上 3 项的综合体。

安提基瑟拉仪处理的是阴历月份与年历之间的关系，其齿轮必须刻得刚刚好，才能精准反映其复杂关系，亦即 19 个历年等于 235 个阴历月。透过这种齿轮机制，任何人都可以核对天空在过去或未来某一个时间点的外观。它当初被人放在 1 个箱子内，前后门都有刻文，像是某种使用手册。前门内部有指针显示日期与日月、黄道带的位置，而后门则显示历年与阴历月的关系，甚至还可预测日蚀与月蚀。（数据源：http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/6/12/12/n1553749.htm）