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Massive Cosmic Explosion 'Struck Medieval Earth'

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxN18UC84dhEp_tTDXdViITjH6ZjZvUf_oeJPC3lJJpm-UlR4-vvENFB6dKBktFuvnex53CVfJfXxc5Xg4uaRTsfMrc-3VKKHeY8XovxtdbWZc-yMMwWU7sq8RwWzAhhZPjwAU86qUJyc/s1600/GRB080319B_illustration_NASA.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxN18UC84dhEp_tTDXdViITjH6ZjZvUf_oeJPC3lJJpm-UlR4-vvENFB6dKBktFuvnex53CVfJfXxc5Xg4uaRTsfMrc-3VKKHeY8XovxtdbWZc-yMMwWU7sq8RwWzAhhZPjwAU86qUJyc/s320/GRB080319B_illustration_NASA.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>A massive burst of inter-stellar radiation may have stuck the Earth in the middle ages, researchers have announced. It is thought that the explosion occurred when two black holes or neutron stars collided somewhere in the Milky Way.  The resultant gamma ray burst sent shockwaves through the galaxy, and hit our planet in the eighth century AD, the German team behind the study told the BBC. It is the latest development of the theory that the middle ages saw a spike in the amount of radiation that can now be found in trees and rocks.  In 2012 a Japanese team found that ancient cedar trees had high levels of carbon-14, an isotope which is created when radiation strikes atoms in our upper atmosphere. Further research on radiation found in ice in the USA pinned the explosion down to between 774 and 775 AD. An entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 774 reads: "This year also appeared in the heavens a red crucifix, after sunset; the Mercians and the men of Kent fought at Otford; and wonderful serpents were seen in the land of the South-Saxons."  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/21/massive-cosmic-explosion-medieval-planet-neuhauser_n_2518373.html" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from the Huffington Post </a> <a href="http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/01/08/mnras.sts378.full" target="_blank">Click here to read the article: A Galactic short gamma-ray burst as cause for the 14C peak in AD 774/5</a>

Massive Cosmic Explosion 'Struck Medieval Earth'

A massive burst of inter-stellar radiation may have stuck the Earth in the middle ages, researchers have announced. It is thought that the e...

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Tycho Brahe was not killed by mercury poisoning, tests reveal

In 2010, Tycho Brahe was exhumed from his grave in Prague, an event which received extensive international media coverage. Since then, a Danish-Czech team of researchers has been working to elucidate the cause of Tycho Brahe’s death. The results of this intensive work now make it possible to rule out mercury poisoning as a cause of death.  For over four hundred years, Tycho Brahe’s untimely death has been a mystery. He died on 24 October 1601 only eleven days after the onset of a sudden illness. Over the centuries, a variety of myths and theories about his death have arisen.  One of the most persistent theories has been that he died of mercury poisoning, either because he voluntarily ingested large quantities of mercury for medicinal purposes, or because mercury was used to poison him. Rumours of death by poisoning arose shortly after Tycho Brahe’s death. Brahe’s famous assistant Johannes Kepler has been identified as a possible murder suspect, and other candidates have been singled out for suspicion throughout the years, according to Dr Jens Vellev, an archaeologist at Aarhus University in Denmark who is heading the research project. <a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2012/11/20/tycho-brahe-was-not-killed-by-mercury-poisoning-tests-reveal/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net</a>

Tycho Brahe was not killed by mercury poisoning, tests reveal

In 2010, Tycho Brahe was exhumed from his grave in Prague, an event which received extensive international media coverage. Since then, a Dan...

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Medieval bestseller explores morality through science

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZGJwrYm29AonNCsuGZxiV1ueIgsEWLMNbRGO8km2LsaQTLwAKsgsNEPkputZ886Oj8IMd5BWlw2ypc9bMOz5srLuuXVPT13JY4IyZ76odMmIOYgP163hJn7SLnZrZ7RrOK1dG8OPbvgY/s1600/Newhauser.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZGJwrYm29AonNCsuGZxiV1ueIgsEWLMNbRGO8km2LsaQTLwAKsgsNEPkputZ886Oj8IMd5BWlw2ypc9bMOz5srLuuXVPT13JY4IyZ76odMmIOYgP163hJn7SLnZrZ7RrOK1dG8OPbvgY/s320/Newhauser.jpeg" width="214" /></a></div>Imagine a stick partially submerged in a pool of water. It appears to be broken at the point where water meets air, but in fact it is in one piece. This optical illusion is called refraction: as light passes from one medium to another, it bends and changes speed based on each medium’s refractive index, causing the stick in water to appear bent.  Most people are familiar with the scientific definition of refraction. But have you ever considered it as a moral concept? Say there’s a man on the street digging through a dumpster. You might see him as being “broken.” But as refraction teaches us, things are not always as they appear.  The idea that scientific principles might also have philosophical applications is explored in The Moral Treatise on the Eye, a text written in the late 13th century by Peter of Limoges. The Moral Treatise is a compilation of short narratives, or exempla, meant to help preachers deliver sermons. Each chapter offers a piece of knowledge about the field of optics. Peter of Limoges first explains the concept scientifically, and then gives a moral or religious interpretation, like in the refraction example.  “Peter quotes Paul, saying that we see things in this world through a dark veil, but in the next life, you’ll see things as they really are,” says Richard Newhauser, an English professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU. “In effect, what he’s saying is, in heaven there’s no reflection or refraction but only lines of direct sight.”  The Moral Treatise on the Eye combines scientific thought with concepts of moral theology. This blending of disciplines is part of what appealed to Newhauser, who recently published a translation of the text with extensive explanatory footnotes. <a href="http://researchmatters.asu.edu/stories/medieval-bestseller-explores-morality-through-science-2353" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Arizona State University</a> <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=medievalistsn-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0888443013&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Medieval bestseller explores morality through science

Imagine a stick partially submerged in a pool of water. It appears to be broken at the point where water meets air, but in fact it is in one...

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Ancient Egyptians Recorded Algol's Variable Magnitude 3000 Years Before Western Astronomers

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpJxdFx2PbFla0VMNT9O3nj09E965bBzw1F3vjf37WlSfKutengqE_WE3RTSlvMoL7vBWrbaNZFRm8MK4cO3XXjhM4yf6MVEuDxky0f_I-NJs3UGxO11tP7v9fn0xY_Ygmq5SiH3dAH6k/s1600/nightsky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpJxdFx2PbFla0VMNT9O3nj09E965bBzw1F3vjf37WlSfKutengqE_WE3RTSlvMoL7vBWrbaNZFRm8MK4cO3XXjhM4yf6MVEuDxky0f_I-NJs3UGxO11tP7v9fn0xY_Ygmq5SiH3dAH6k/s320/nightsky.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>A statistical analysis of a 3000-year old calendar reveals that astronomers in ancient Egyptian must have known the period of the eclipsing binary Algol. The Ancient Egyptians were meticulous astronomers and recorded the passage of the heavens in extraordinary detail. The goal was to mark the passage of time and  to understand the will of the Gods who kept the celestial machinery at work. Egyptian astronomers used what they learnt to make predictions about the future. They drew these up in the form of calendars showing lucky and unlucky days. The predictions were amazingly precise. Each day was divided into three or more segments, each of which was given a rating lying somewhere in the range from very favourable to highly adverse. One of the best preserved of these papyrus documents is called the Cairo Calendar. Although the papyrus is badly damaged in places, scholars have been able to extract a complete list of ratings for days throughout an entire year somewhere around 1200 BC. <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27809/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Technology Review</a>

Ancient Egyptians Recorded Algol's Variable Magnitude 3000 Years Before Western Astronomers

A statistical analysis of a 3000-year old calendar reveals that astronomers in ancient Egyptian must have known the period of the eclipsing ...

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Early printed book contains rare evidence of medieval spectacles

Many scholars rank the invention of eyeglasses among the most important contributions to humankind in the last 2,000 years. Yet, the inventor of this now thoroughly quotidian piece of technology remains anonymous. Indeed the inventor (or inventors) will almost certainly never be known, given the numerous conflicting claims, lack of specificity, and scarcity of surviving documentation. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgViwmVwS4kYUPZBqT4xYv5GI3tWGHApy5K-LwyHqyQvLRPNSzM16svdr4K0G5g3VI9dc9kiFFXoblrumOGCCT57F4pIv0FOX1Em_HQkrY1IZK3IWOxsyjwUkBJELTaR-2_Yd3o9YGXh3M/s1600/wire_framed_eyeglasses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgViwmVwS4kYUPZBqT4xYv5GI3tWGHApy5K-LwyHqyQvLRPNSzM16svdr4K0G5g3VI9dc9kiFFXoblrumOGCCT57F4pIv0FOX1Em_HQkrY1IZK3IWOxsyjwUkBJELTaR-2_Yd3o9YGXh3M/s400/wire_framed_eyeglasses.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> What scholars do know about the history of eyeglasses is that they were probably invented at the end of the thirteenth century by a craftsman living near Pisa. The evidence originates from a passage by Friar Giordano da Pisa who recounts having met the anonymous craftsman in 1286. A friend of Giordano named Friar Allesandro della Spina learned how to make them shortly thereafter and shared the secret with the public. A number of other possible inventors of eyeglasses have been posited over the centuries, all of which have finally been proven spurious in recent scholarship. During the early period of the production of eyeglasses, they were referred to as vitreos ab oculis ad legendum (eyeglasses for eyes for reading) and oglarios de vitro (spectacles with glass lenses). Eventually these rather clunky terms were shortened to occhiali and ocularia. Either way, the evidence indicates that spectacles were probably invented in Italy at the end of the thirteenth century, and by the early fourteenth century, they were being produced and sold in Venice. <a href="http://www.utexas.edu/opa/blogs/culturalcompass/2012/04/17/medieval-spectacles/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin</a>

Early printed book contains rare evidence of medieval spectacles

Many scholars rank the invention of eyeglasses among the most important contributions to humankind in the last 2,000 years. Yet, the invento...

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