William Noel: Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes

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www.ted.com How do you read a two-thousand-year-old manuscript that has been erased, cut up, written on and painted over? With a powerful particle accelerator, of course! Ancient books curator William Noel tells the fascinating story behind the Archimedes palimpsest, a Byzantine prayer book containing previously-unknown original writings from ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes and others.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com/tra...
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15 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 300

@JuusoAlasuutari 11 лет назад

This is one of the most significant archaeologic finds ever. Absolutely wonderful work.

@SulisFidelis 12 лет назад

I'm so glad that there are people out there who care enough about this stuff to spend so long saving it. We really are in the debt of those who work to preserve such precious treasures from our past

@brendenstubblefield3570 6 лет назад

Thanks to dudes like this we have medieval fencing manuals and I have a sport I practice daily

@fattonysullivan 12 лет назад

Wish all TED's were this good. Great presentation of science.

@WaxingRadiance 12 лет назад

The last few minutes of this presentation are the most important. Amazing find and correctly dealt with.

@JohngrJohngr 8 лет назад

Outstanding presentation! I had the pleasure of visiting the museum and seeing the exhibits in 2011. A memorable event. Excellent Museum besides Archimedes, highly recommended.

@TazManiac008 12 лет назад

This is absolutely mind blowing! What a jewel of a manuscript that is. It is almost as mind blowing as a group of people coming together and working hard for years to provide this invaluable information to the whole world for free. I tip my hat to you and to your foundation!

@mbtoth8238 4 месяца назад

Sadly we've lost a dear friend, collaborator and pioneer with the death of Will Noel on Monday, 29 April, after he was struck by a van while walking on a sidewalk in Edinburgh on 10 April. His advocacy for free and open cultural heritage data cited in this presentation lives on....

@ncmccollum1708 4 месяца назад

His former fellow sailors are gathering to remember him Friday in Annapolis. We’ll miss him dearly, as I know you will.

@pikifrino 5 лет назад

This is amazing! I remain speechless! BRAVO & THANK you for ALL!.

@AcceptSolitude 12 лет назад

This is the kind of awesome talk I like from TED, not stupid personal stories.

@jessicabeek3883 8 лет назад

Thank you for explaining how you and your colleagues undertook such a complex an important endeavor. Education and data is the Cadillac for Humanity, and what you and your colleagues accomplished is the ultimate restoration.

@daultonbaird6314 9 лет назад

My heart is overloaded with gratitude .

@CurtHowland 12 лет назад

One thing he forgot to mention, the Archimedes text shows that Archimedes was already developing the Calculus, 1700 years before Newton. In some parallel world, the Library at Alexandria was not burned, and humans are already reaching the stars.

@megamastah 11 лет назад

Best TED speech ever.

@Random_dudebro 12 лет назад

Prayer books are a dime a dozen, but Archimedes is priceless.

@kiddhitta 12 лет назад

i know there are a lot of people here that, as soon as he said that it was erased and and use to write prayers on it, your blood started to boil.

@theideagirlsays 10 лет назад

a combination of words that have lots of meaning, wonderful!

@UsernameNULL755 12 лет назад

this guy deserves a medal

@LanceWinslow 12 лет назад

Wow, that's just so incredible indeed. Awesome work, ingenuity, and excellent use of modern technology. You win, we all win, great job!

@body_clock 2 месяца назад

RIP to this tremendous man. You will be missed dearly by so many.

@POTIS1 11 лет назад

Ο ΑΡΧΙΜΗΔΗΣ ΣΕ ΕΥΧΑΡΙΣΤΕΙ Κε NOEL!

@TheGerogero 12 лет назад

This guy has a magnificent voice!

@AR333 12 лет назад

As a student studying to become a textual critic of the New Testament, I was completely jaw-dropped by the ingenuity of these people.

@Eightyfourth 12 лет назад

so, could we have a link to these data so we can read them by any chanse? thx in advance and thx for the fantastic podcasts of TEDTalks

@TheResidentSkeptic 12 лет назад

6:29 "If you process the same two images in a different way you can actually get rid of the prayer book text, and this is terribly important..." I agree. Civilization will not attain perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest.

@dingorex 4 года назад

Really, we know the Shroud of Jesus pre-existed the C-14 date because of liturgical writings and artwork. Very valuable for many reasons.

@OldSkoolF 8 лет назад

A true humanitarian...

@RTX94 12 лет назад

This was fantastic.

@essellar 12 лет назад

Writing on palimpsests (previously used parchment) was a common practice. Parchment was (and still is) expensive, and could be scraped almost perfectly clean. The writer would have to have been a reader of Greek (not common in western Europe until the 15th century, even among the educated class) and a mathematician familiar with Arab and Greek math (again, almost unheard of at the time) to recognise the value of the existing text.

@susanfrom 12 лет назад

Erasing parchment manuscripts was common in early monasteries. Parchment, made from animal skin, was expensive & so was often reused. In those days ancient manuscripts were not considered that important & it's a wonder the monk's bothered to recopy them at all (though they did). A good book on the subject is The Swerve How the World became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt. It recounts the rediscovery of Lucretius work Nature of Things in the 15th C and gives a bit of background on this phenomenon.

@SEThatered 12 лет назад

Personally I don't blame that guy, after all his actions did preserve the text of Archimedes, even if he deliberately wanted to destroy it. He probably didn't knew any better. My original comment was referring to the value a math text holds over some prayer text: it is infinitely greater. In fact it is as great as between firmly knowing that building will not collapse (because you can calculate the loads and measure it with the equipment) and just merely hoping it will not collapse.

@aktinotos 10 лет назад

2:00: Leading to Johan Ludwig Heiberg's discovery (1906): Constantin von Tischendorf had noticed the manuscript without understanding what was about (1846), whereas Athanasios Papadopoulos-Kerameus understood there was a mathematical work there (1899).

@essellar 12 лет назад

The "A", "B" and "C" are labels given to individual copies of a book. It's common for ancient books to be labelled that way, or given names based on where they were found, since manuscripts are almost all different to begin with (different layout, different abbreviations, different errors in copying) and eventually wind up with different kinds of damage.

@jennifermalagon3699 2 года назад

Thank you

@h0lyrs422 4 года назад

This is amazing!

@str3123 12 лет назад

Amazing speech!

@JuusoAlasuutari 11 лет назад

It's true that the ancient Athenians introduced many important things, but not all of them. For instance the concept of zero as a number is an Indian invention. And binary arithmetic (which computers are based on) was introduced to Europe by Arabs, who in turn had imported the basic idea from Africa. By the way, is your caps lock key broken?

@TheaDragonSpirit 12 лет назад

Loving how they are being so open and sharing this information! Great! Really Great! I just hope there not doctored.

@officiallexmontero 2 года назад

Marvelous.

@dutchphysicist 5 лет назад

Absolutely awesome!

@thegyger 12 лет назад

It's that institutions should give their information out for free no matter how hard it is to find that information and unrestricted sharing of information. He just gave a lengthy, single example of what that team did for that one prayer book that contained 3 works from important historical figures. He talked about it's rarity to emphasis his final point. I hope that clears it up for you :)

@mikaperlin 12 лет назад

Promotion of Archimedes, physics, and open source in one video. Win.

@mseedre 12 лет назад

but you have to consider that maybe the main reason we at all found them, specially now, when we are capable of 'reading between the lines', is because they where reused by those monks . most of the ancient valuable writings are lost because no one cared to keep them

@thegyger 12 лет назад

Well the prayer book was done over top enlightenment parchments which were found once those books images were processed. So you have the right point, just the other way around :)

@13thMarverick 12 лет назад

Which is one of the thing that sparks hope in humanity in all of us. Even if civilization would fall tomorrow and everything is lost, we would eventually figure out everything again, unlike religion which will be lost forever, and religion zealots would have to invent new religions all over again. Science is eternity and religion is temporary.

@Buggs01 12 лет назад

Brilliant!

@nhprman 12 лет назад

Someone please point to the ENGLISH text of what he says here at 10:04, "Best of all is to win. But if you can't win," etc. IF there are transcriptions online at this guy's site, they are buried in blitheringly confusing jargon.

@sashakid 12 лет назад

Amazing !

@blurglide 12 лет назад

How about "the Vatican library should be encouraged to put all it's books online", and we leave the force out of it.

@nyc730 4 месяца назад

RIP -Bill :(

@srinivasch-re2oq 5 месяцев назад

Really in those very old days around 250 BC, when there was no exposure to science and technology , thinking in such a genius way is great. If he had been there in 19 th or 18th century would have contributed a lot

@SinHurr 12 лет назад

I'm glad they were able to dig through the history of the paper and pull out the original material, I think it's a bit of a stretch to think that ancient scribes used the texts as a way to hide knowledge. Ancients had zero knowledge of the techniques used to pull the old text out.

@ignati123 11 лет назад

If a math text applies to the physical world, which is temporal, limited, and possessing death, then how is a prayer text, which re-opens communion with God, and a subsequent transcendence of the physical infinitely less valuable?

@oshietkudafrickinsai1232 9 лет назад

It seems really hard to properly convey the significance of things like archimedes' written mathematics to the general public

@brendenstubblefield3570 6 лет назад

oshiet kudafrickinsai not the point

@andrewc2768 12 лет назад

@ 12.21 what were the two sites he mentioned?

@celshader 12 лет назад

The reminds of the short story 'Hellbound Heart' that the movie 'Hellraiser' was based on. In the story there were serveral ways of opening the dimensional door to Hell and summoning Pinhead. One was the puzzlebox in the movie and... "One such chart was in the vaults of the Vatican, hidden in code in a theological work unread since the Reformation." I hope this guy knows what he is doing.

@sevenz1471 7 лет назад

let's raid the vatican

@phobiahd9954 5 лет назад

This is a meme now lol

@Teeveepicksures 4 года назад

there are miles of catacombs under the vatican that hold some of the worlds greatest relics and lost history

@lemonairfreshiner 3 года назад

@@Teeveepicksures lets keep it that way

@SinHurr 12 лет назад

I would agree. Imagine if early cell manufacturers had been sued for violating the patents on the telephone - or cutting into their profits, which would be highly ridiculous and not at all surprising in modern times.

@robertocunha2857 Год назад

Ouvir o palestrante é muito aflitivo, pois ele está visivelmente ansioso, falando freneticamente. Apesar do conteúdo de sua palestra ser interessantíssimo e muito importante, não é muito saudável ouvi-lo. A plateia se mostra constrangida e oprimida com esse condição emocional do palestrante. Ele certamente não estava preparado psicologicamente para isso.

@unnisa25 12 лет назад

Just amazing

@DimmedDiamond 12 лет назад

Loved the conclusion. RELEASE THE DATA FOR EVERYONE.

@del4830 12 лет назад

A.The monk was being resourceful. He needed paper, and paper wasn't easy to come by. B.The text the monk had was itself a copy and not the original, nor was it the only one!! So why not use it. Heck I have an old Excel Textbook I'd cut up in heartbeat, if need be. C.What better way to preserve a text, than by turning into a holy book! D.Archimedes is best known for his inventions. The math was less important. We ought to thank the monk and Mr Noel. No other copy survived. But this one did!

@AngelosPapadopoulos314159 11 лет назад

Fantastic Indeed!

@harlowsolid 12 лет назад

Three significant scientific manuscripts in one prayer book. My theory is the monk was a time traveler and was trying to save them from being burned as hericy by the church. He came from a parallel world where the Library at Alexandria was not burned... in a TARDIS.

@thesuperpagamas 12 лет назад

I'm talking about philosophy, which is generally renowned as a higher order of thinking (and I personally hold it above all science). Philosophy can pretty much prove through reason alone that you can't entirely trust science and if we go even further into postmodernism, you can find that there is even a problem with our one track mind which narrows us down to one thing. People who aren't open to "different" ideas are never the ones who make great achievements Sorry that was kinda a messy reply

@thegyger 12 лет назад

You might be looking at the talk through a lens. I think he wrapped up the whole idea in the last paragraph of his talk before he walked off stage. Yes that was the content of the talk but the overarching narrative was far deeper and about sharing that information openly... I think.

@gnomons. 3 года назад

涙なしには見れませんでした、じつに素晴らしい。

@ildefonsoperez4400 2 года назад

Bravo!!! Sharing is an act of love. Thanks god there aren't any laws to control love. Or maybe I'm wrong?

@Mackras 12 лет назад

dam it i love this channel!

@sakunamanussa9876 5 лет назад

BRAVO!!!! I couldn't agree more

@qaker3 12 лет назад

TedtalksDirector, please lower the soundlevels of the intro and outro to "normal" soundlevels. There is no need at all to have a several decibel louder intro then the rest of the video..

@AlphaGeminorum1 3 года назад

Notice how the prayers in the book are completely irrelevant to ANYTHING.

@Zelator1000 4 месяца назад

Except to the grand architect of all existence. ie God Almighty

@ScapularSaves 11 лет назад

I agree. The monks helped to preserve immensely Greco-Roman literature and civilization.

@del4830 12 лет назад

You missed the first and very subtle point. 0:16. There were many copies of Archimedes work (Codex C) at the time the monk in question turned one into a prayer book. No way, this was the only one! My point is, where are the other copies of codex C? All gone! Why? 2 reasons: 1. Archimedes' math was less important than his inventions 2. The copies were abundant, and treated carelessly. The glass is half full here. The actions of the monk gave us access to this treasure. Where all others failed.

@stephentsang2000 12 лет назад

They should force the Vantican library to put all their books online.

@thesuperpagamas 12 лет назад

It is ridiculous to say that people need to understand art to like it. Someone may not understand the complexity that goes through it, but it can still be appealing. A good example is in the art of dance. You may not understand how to do a fouetté juté, but you can still have an appeal for it. Of course, math may be the same, but having an appeal for something doesn't mean that it is needed.

@aphyd23 12 лет назад

Why?

@oontyex 12 лет назад

yes/no, it depends on where the funding for the work comes from. I people are producing the work as means of making a living, then the ability to protect their intellectual property - to them - is a neccessity. However, if the people producing the work are e.g. government funded/ a pet project, then they arent depending on the work being payed for to cover costs of time/resources.

@AR333 12 лет назад

"why?" How could one not be blown away? Learning about how scholars figure out their conclusions prove infinitely more convincing than the simplistic idea of a "received text" that conveys the "original" meaning of an ancient author (= i.e. the bible did not fall from the sky).

@wafeman17 12 лет назад

you comment has bummed me out more than any comment i've ever seen. thanks, pal.

@ghstrdio 12 лет назад

Awesome

@del4830 12 лет назад

Until another copy of Codex C turns up, no one should be mad at the monk. Whoever had a copy of Codex C in the middle ages let it go to ruin. We only have access to this one copy, because of the actions of the monk.

@Justgoodvids 12 лет назад

And best of all, the link isn't in the description.

@Random_dudebro 12 лет назад

He was doing similar mathematical work to Newton's but 1700 years before hand. In what way is that less important? It is revolutionary. The glass is half full, but not because of the monk, it's because of Dr Noel.

@claudius_drusus_ 2 года назад

Archimedes hadn't even tackled differential calculus and his method was not a generalized function. What held calculus back was metaphysics.

@SY-bj7pp Год назад

Why would you put a fresh, new metal clasp on it? 11m.30s

@JeremiahLawrenceTV 12 лет назад

The one who's wrong about a given enigma still retains some respect for the truth -his own truth made by his own judgment. But the one who does not take a firm position, the agnotic, will never hold FULL respect for the truth. He'll always end up saying that it's not possible to know the full truth of an enigma, no matter how much facts and evidences you give him, he will never take the real responsability of judgment. Never willing to make a Firm Choice. That is why being an agnostic is worse.

@Phelan666 12 лет назад

Did he find Archimedes' codex in Heavy's ribcage?

@mtdeezy 12 лет назад

Is this a re-post?

@KowaruKei 12 лет назад

and i did. this was brilliant

@thesuperpagamas 12 лет назад

I'm suggesting that maybe saying that spirituality (or whatever you would wish to call it) is important and that saying it isn't is wrong. People are to stuck in their beliefs. Get with the times and learn about postmodernism. It is far better than the old way of thinking on a purely scientific basis.

@Ibakecookiess 12 лет назад

Doesnt matter what symbols you use or what you call them. one unit added to another units makes two units. Its not an agreement we humans made, its just something thats true. If we all agree the new numbers are 1,3,4,5,6 then yes, 1+1=3, "3" just has another meaning now. If you believe math was constructed and its arbitrary you dont understand it at all.

@Rowlandi11 9 лет назад

All this talk about religion...how bout all that awesome science they did to get the text back? Amazing!

@OmarHaleemOne 12 лет назад

Very truly a good idea..amazing stuff..well, I'll just make a beline for Walters and check it out myself..:)

@sethhurley3769 3 года назад

Made me wonder if we would ever see the Vatican‘s library digitized. 😂

@curiousentertainment3008 2 года назад

Probably not and that’s not about how large their collection is it’s about what texts they Vatican does and doesn’t want public.

@andy7666 12 лет назад

Its true that Islam threw them back, the Mongols and Turks didn't help either (the Mongols were great benefactors of science and various religions in the East but thier style of leadership combined with Islam in the Mid East meant for a slowing down of progress).

@stupidystu 12 лет назад

Two Cavemen, One has fire, other caveman ask "How you make fire ?" Fire caveman say "Can't tell you, FUCKING COPYRIGHT!"

@CurtHowland 12 лет назад

Just like hundreds of works of J.S.Bach that were lost, sold merely for their value as paper, after his death, to places like cheese shops who used his manuscripts merely for their value as paper to wrap cheese, the same way newspapers in the UK are used to wrap fish and chips. But there were no copies, no backups, and those works are gone.

@DarkAsSilver 12 лет назад

Thanks for the video it was very interesting, however by that stage development of science was rapidifying in Europe, we can trace the beginings of scientific method to the 13th century as well as Theodoric of freiberg correctly describing the phenomena of rainbows. As a result I believe you are still over estimating the effect of religion on our current development levels.

@Ahayu-lindo 11 лет назад

Im gona learn now the koran, medevil text, archimedes text and have huge debates and interesting conversations with people i meet. im gona dig and find as much as i can. wohooo

@DarkAsSilver 12 лет назад

well there's not that much new stuff there, so I feel like we should just agree to disagree. Thanks this was an interesting well thought out argument, honestly I'm surprised seeing as we're on the internet.