What do you do when the rains keep coming and floods sweep across your country? As the waters rise and cover your fields and towns, what do you use to save your home? Do you write a fancy new computer program, download the newest anti-flooding app on your phone or design complicated modern robots to deal with it? Well, people in the United Kingdom are facing this very problem and you might be surprised to learn they aren’t turning to modern technology. Instead, they’re looking back to one of antiquity’s greatest scientists and inventors, Archimedes, and to his giant water screws.
Category Archives: Meteorology
KIDS’ BLOG! Archimedes’ Ancient Screw Saves 21st Century Britain From Flooding
Posted in Blog, Engineering, Kids Blog, Kids: Engineering, Kids: Meteorology, Kids: Natural Disasters, Kids: Public Life, Kids: Science and Tech, Meteorology, Natural Disasters, Public Life, Science and Technology
Tagged ancient engineering, ancient farming, ancient history, ancient irrigation, AntiquityNOW, Archimedes, Archimedes Screws, Egypt, flooding, Greece, United Kingdom
Ancient Volcanic Eruptions Lead to Modern Predictions
Computer generated imagery of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius as seen from Pompeii in 79 AD.
This past Saturday, August 24th, marked the generally accepted anniversary of the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. It has been centuries since the famous volcano erupted and destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, burying them under a pyroclastic flow and preserving them in stunning and tragic detail. An estimated 16,000 people lost their lives in the days that followed. Today, 2,000 years later, scientists are using data gained from such ancient eruptions to ensure that fewer lives are lost when volcanoes erupt. Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Meteorology, Natural Disasters, Public Life, Science and Technology
Tagged ancient history, AntiquityNOW, Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii, volcanoes, weather
Hurricane Season 2013 BCE: Ancient Storms, Modern Predictions
Hurricane Season 2013 has just begun and scientists are predicting an above-average season with as many as 17 named storms, 5-10 of which may be hurricanes.[1] A number of climate factors are taken into consideration and studied closely in order to come up with these predictions, including the fact that we continue to be in a high-activity era since 1995. Scientists track storm data from the past in order to predict the future weather and you may be surprised how far back they go for their data. Some scientists believe that ancient storms provide important clues about our present and future weather. Continue reading
AntiquityNOW 