The Antikythera Mechanism: A Shocking Discovery from Ancient Greece.

This is a history lesson at a graduate or senior-year undergraduate history level. But you need to know about The Antikythera Mechanism. It is a scientific device that is able to do advanced astronomical calibrations--and it was built over 2,000 years ago. It is like finding an intact iPhone while excavating ancient civilization ruins.

The Antikythera mechanism, shown here in this computer reconstruction, was about the size of a shoebox, with dials on its exterior and an intricate system of 30 bronze gear wheels inside. Though it was found in several corroded fragments, scientists have used imaging and other technologies to piece the machine together and even decode its inscriptions. When it was in use, a user of this "computer" could have turned a hand crank and tracked the positions of the sun and the moon, the lunar phases, and even cycles of Greek athletic competitions.