Updated Discoveries Regarding the Antikythera Device — Sir Michael Edmunds
Please join the Amateur Observers’ Society of New York on Sunday, September 8, 2024 for a follow-up to Sir Michael Edmunds’ AOSNY lecture in 2021: The Antikythera Device and the Mechanical Universe.
How did our view of the Universe develop? By the mid‐eighteenth century it was accepted that the Universe was constrained by physical laws. These laws, if not entirely understood, showed regularity and could be handled mathematically to provide both explanation and prediction of celestial phenomena. Most of us have at least some hazy idea of the fundamental shift that came through the work of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton. The idea that the universe runs like a clock tends to be associated with these sixteenth‐ and seventeenth‐century pioneers. It remains as useful and perhaps comforting – analogy. But the idea of a “mechanical” universe had been around for much longer – at least as far back as the third century BCE. The evidence for this from the Antikythera Mechanism, an extraordinary artefact from ancient Greece which I will be describe and illustrate. I will discuss how the mechanistic view gradually developed through two millennia until the 20th Centuty. The subsequent advent of quantum mechanics and high‐performance computing inevitably prompts us to ask the question – “Is a mechanistic view of the Universe still valid in the twenty‐first century?”
Mike Edmunds was born in the North of England in 1949. He went up to Cambridge University nearly 53 years ago, where his undergraduate degree was in Natural
Sciences (specialising in Physics) and then carried out a PhD at the Institute of Astronomy. His first research was in stellar spectroscopy, investigating the chemical compositions of stars. On moving to Cardiff University, he extended this research to the investigation of the chemical composition of galaxies by the analysis of the spectra of nebulae. Much of this work was done in collaboration, and also involved the theoretical modeling of the chemical evolution of galaxies and the Universe.
Other research interests included the formation of interstellar dust, particularly in early galaxies, and also some aspects of statistical astronomy. From 1999 a programme of research developed on the Antikythera Mechanism, a geared astronomical calculator dating from the first or second century B.C. Mike was the academic lead on an international programme involving UK, Greek and US scholars, engineers and scientists that undertook X‐Ray Computed Tomography of the remains of the device, leading to an understanding of its functions and translation of its inscriptions. Mike stayed at Cardiff University throughout his career, serving a term as Head of Department, and is now Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics. Mike also worked for two of the UK’s Research Councils, serving on many committees and advisory panels. He has used large telescopes in Australia, the Canary Islands and Chile. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and will become President of the Royal Astronomical Society for two years from 2022. He may occasionally be seen performing his one‐man play “Sir Isaac Remembers…” about Isaac Newton.
Married with two grown‐up daughters and three grandchildren. Leisure interests: Walking, sailing, drama (both acting and directing), reading, music and old steam trains.