The Vespiary Book Binding & Book Conservation

I promised more links to interesting Archimedes stuff and while a little later than I would’ve liked, here they are.

If you don’t have time to read the book written by Netz and Noel, the movers and shakers of the Archimedes Palimpsest Project, this Google TechTalk will give you a good synopsis (although the photos get flipped through a little too fast for my liking - there are many more charts and slides than were provided in the book). I’d suggest watching/listening to it once, and then going back with your hand on the pause button to check out the slides. As an aside, some of the other Google Speaker talks are really wonderful, like Erin McKean, the editor and lexicographer of the New Oxford American Dictionary.

Unfortunately, while Abigail Quandt was not captured in this video (and I think she was slated to talk, too), I found another video filmed at the San Francisco Exploratorium. Abigail’s bit starts at minute 24 if you don’t want to watch the whole thing, especially after the previous video. You need to have either a Windows Media compatible player or the dreaded RealPlayer, my apologies.

A last fun link has to do with Archimedes himself and an experiment done by folks over at MIT. Apparently, there has been some controversy as to the validity of one of Archie’s more destructive inventions, the Solar Death Ray! One of the many defenses attributed to Archimedes in his plans to defend Syracuse from invading Romans, it has tantalized many a scientist and soldier. It looks like there are conflicting ideas on the efficiency of this beam of heat (MythBusters considers it busted), but the team at MIT did achieve ignition of a mock up Roman warship. Zap!