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15 Feb ’12
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Imagine all the knowledge lost over the years
A 1,000-year-old treatment for eye infections could hold the key to killing antibiotic-resistant superbugs, experts have said.
Scientists recreated a 9th Century Anglo-Saxon remedy using onion, garlic and part of a cow's stomach.
They were "astonished" to find it almost completely wiped out methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, otherwise known as MRSA.
Their findings will be presented at a national microbiology conference.
The remedy was found in Bald's Leechbook - an old English manuscript containing instructions on various treatments held in the British Library.
Anglo-Saxon expert Dr Christina Lee, from the University of Nottingham, translated the recipe for an "eye salve", which includes garlic, onion or leeks, wine and cow bile.
Experts from the university's microbiology team recreated the remedy and then tested it on large cultures of MRSA.
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spotted-horses15 Feb ’12
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thought this was interesting
Atlantis' Legendary Metal Found in Shipwreck
Gleaming cast metal called orichalcum, which was said by Ancient Greeks to be found in Atlantis, has been recovered from a ship that sunk 2,600 years ago off the coast of Sicily.
The lumps of metal were arriving to Gela in southern Sicily, possibly coming from Greece or Asia Minor. The ship that was carrying them was likely caught in a storm and sunk just when it was about to enter the port.
"The wreck dates to the first half of the sixth century," Sebastiano Tusa, Sicily's superintendent of the Sea Office, told Discovery News. "It was found about 1,000 feet from Gela's coast at a depth of 10 feet."
6 Feb ’14
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KVR said
thought this was interestingAtlantis' Legendary Metal Found in Shipwreck
Gleaming cast metal called orichalcum, which was said by Ancient Greeks to be found in Atlantis, has been recovered from a ship that sunk 2,600 years ago off the coast of Sicily.
Yeaaaaahhhh.....
Except that Atlantis is fictional. And shame on Discovery for presenting it as historical.
I posted the Atlantis image because like many people, I like the notion of Atlantis. It is my go to thought when "lost knowledge and technology" are mentioned. Atlantis has several embodiments of the lost knowledge notion. The first being that there are no known sources which pre-date Plato's account and there is question as to his inspiration. The second being the whole "did it exist, and where" discussion. Third being, that if it had existed, an entire continent sinking into the ocean and taking all it's knowledge with it lost forever to the depths. And forth, that there exist depictions of Atlantis itself as possessing great marvels of technology, advanced well beyond it's day.
6 Feb ’14
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21 Feb ’12
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