Friday, August 04, 2006
On Floating Bodies
Archimedes has played a significant role in my mental well-being lately. Take a look at this:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/archimedes/index.html
Isn't it great? The Exploratorium website is the easiest way to gain public access to the process, but I first heard about it over the radio about a week ago. According to the radio show, researchers were having a hard time deciphering the whole text because of all the layers of later writing and painting over it. And then a German scientist went for a visit at his parents house in Germany.
His mother, being his mother, had cut newspaper clippings she thought might be of interest to him to read before bed. One of the articles was about the Archimedes palimpsest, and how it had proven to be difficult to see through the layers into the original. The original text, the article said, was written with ink that had traces of iron. And our German thought of spinach. Spinach was what he and his fellow scientists were studying at their lab in Stanford University (plant photosynthesis, I believe, being the main theme of the suty). Spinach - iron - ink with traces of iron - the rest is history.
On another note, we floated our bodies downstream on the Russian River last weekend - actually, the river is so slow one has to keep paddling to get anywhere, even going downstream. But I would still call it floating. It was a good respite from moving/separation anxiety, although of course it only prolonged the task of getting settled in. Which we still are not quite (settled, that is). But now, with the powers of Archimedes, bus drivers and the prospect of a new library card I promise to tackle the mess this very day!
http://www.exploratorium.edu/archimedes/index.html
Isn't it great? The Exploratorium website is the easiest way to gain public access to the process, but I first heard about it over the radio about a week ago. According to the radio show, researchers were having a hard time deciphering the whole text because of all the layers of later writing and painting over it. And then a German scientist went for a visit at his parents house in Germany.
His mother, being his mother, had cut newspaper clippings she thought might be of interest to him to read before bed. One of the articles was about the Archimedes palimpsest, and how it had proven to be difficult to see through the layers into the original. The original text, the article said, was written with ink that had traces of iron. And our German thought of spinach. Spinach was what he and his fellow scientists were studying at their lab in Stanford University (plant photosynthesis, I believe, being the main theme of the suty). Spinach - iron - ink with traces of iron - the rest is history.
On another note, we floated our bodies downstream on the Russian River last weekend - actually, the river is so slow one has to keep paddling to get anywhere, even going downstream. But I would still call it floating. It was a good respite from moving/separation anxiety, although of course it only prolonged the task of getting settled in. Which we still are not quite (settled, that is). But now, with the powers of Archimedes, bus drivers and the prospect of a new library card I promise to tackle the mess this very day!
# posted by Aino @ 10:58 AM 
