Renaissance Potters Were Nanotechnologists

Posted by Hemos on Monday June 30, 2003 @04:12AM from the the-first-ones-around dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "In this article, Nature says that "tiny metal particles give 15th century Italian ceramics lustre." Nature adds that iridescent glazes -- changing colour when viewed from different perspectives -- were achieved by using "particles of copper and silver of between 5 and 100 billionths of a metre across." And the story becomes even more interesting. Nanotechnology meets alchemy! "The ability to change colour was regarded as an alchemical property, making iridescence magic too." Read this summary for more details. And for more information, you can read the abstract of this research paper, "Copper in glazes of Renaissance luster pottery: Nanoparticles, ions, and local environment," published by the Journal of Applied Physics."

3 of 145 comments (clear)

Change color ... (colour, whatever) by inertia187 · 2003-06-30 04:14 · Score: 5, Funny

"The ability to change colour was regarded as an alchemical property, making iridescence magic too."

Yep, I can attest to that. Just take a look at all of the magical leftovers in my refrigerator.

--
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Does that make... by MoxCamel · 2003-06-30 04:15 · Score: 5, Funny

...the first caveman to figure out how to throw a spear an "Aerospace Engineer?" :)
1. Re:Does that make... by Junior+J.+Junior+III · 2003-06-30 05:36 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Maybe we can just send a missle back in time...
  
  Only if you were somehow able to encase the entire thing in flesh, as cyberDyne Systems have proven, you can't send inorganic material back in time without encasing it in living tissue.
  
  I really don't wanna think about what that would look like.
  
  --
  You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!