כיצד ייתכן שברומא העתיקה השתמשו בננו-טכנולוגיה? - כתבת המדע של אן.טי.די מספרת על התעלומה

We look at some of the most unusual phenomena and unexplained mysteries that our world has to offer. From the Lycurgus Cup and ancient technology to the Nimrud Lens, a telescope lens from 710 BC. NTD science contributor and host of Kodak's Legendarium, Shelby Melanson, explores the questions that have survived every attempt to answer them. Have a look. An ancient Roman cup that tells the story of a mythical king's downfall is packed with modern nanotechnology? Inside the British Museum, the Lycurgus Cup stuns viewers with its unique superpower, changing color from jade green to blood red, depending on the light that hits it. Inside the glass, unthinkably small flecks of colloidal gold and silver cause the color change. These nanoparticles are unfathomably small, thousands of times smaller than the width of a single human hair. The precise mixture scatters wavelengths of light so that your eye perceives the color differently, called surface plasmon resonance. Light that reflects off the glass looks green, but transmitted light shows as crimson. It's among the earliest and most advanced examples of nanotechnology in history, the only one that isn't smashed into pieces, by the way, and it's just shy of 2,000 years old. This painstakingly crafted cup depicts the Greek myth of King Lycurgus of Thrace. After he attacked the followers of Dionysus, the Greek god of winemaking, the nymph Ambrosia transformed into a vine to trap the king, bringing an end to his violence. The incredible artifact begs the question, what other technology appeared in the ancient world that we haven't yet discovered? My fellow photographers and telescope lovers, you guys will really like this one. What if I told you that a 3,000-year-old piece of crystal might be evidence of an ancient telescope? This is the Nimrud Lens, also known as the Leynard Lens. It dates back to the year 710 BC, or roughly 2,730 years. British historian, archaeologist, and politician, Sir Austin Henry Leynard, rediscovered it back in 1850, and since then, theories about what it was made for have run wild. The lens is approximately 38 millimeters wide and has a focal length of roughly 12 centimeters, meaning it offers about three times magnification if you look through it. The British Museum says it might have been a decorative inlay in a piece of furniture or a burning glass used to start fires. Any of you ever, you know, light ants on fire with a magnifying glass? Yeah, that kind of thing. But other theories suggest it was crafted as a magnifying glass or even, according to one researcher named Giovanni Pettinato, a telescope lens. To back it up, he cites ancient writings from Mesopotamia that describe the planet Saturn as a god surrounded by serpents. Saturn is visible to the naked eye, but to see its rings, you would definitely need some kind of optical assistance of some kind. What do you think? I can totally see Saturn's rings getting interpreted by the ancients as mystical snakes, especially with less than crystal clear optics to look through.