This 1,600-Year-Old Goblet Shows that the Romans Were Nanotechnology Pioneers

Smithsonian magazine ^ | September 2013 | Zeeya Merali

[SunkenCiv]

The Romans may have first come across the colorful potential of nanoparticles by accident but they seem to have perfected it...

The glass chalice, known as the Lycurgus Cup because it bears a scene involving King Lycurgus of Thrace, appears jade green when lit from the front but blood-red when lit from behind -- a property that puzzled scientists for decades after the museum acquired the cup in the 1950s. The mystery wasn’t solved until 1990, when researchers in England scrutinized broken fragments under a microscope and discovered that the Roman artisans were nanotechnology pioneers: They’d impregnated the glass with particles of silver and gold, ground down until they were as small as 50 nanometers in diameter, less than one-thousandth the size of a grain of table salt. The exact mixture of the precious metals suggests the Romans knew what they were doing -- "an amazing feat," says one of the researchers, archaeologist Ian Freestone of University College London.

The ancient nanotech works something like this: When hit with light, electrons belonging to the metal flecks vibrate in ways that alter the color depending on the observer’s position. Gang Logan Liu, an engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who has long focused on using nanotechnology to diagnose disease, and his colleagues realized that this effect offered untapped potential. "The Romans knew how to make and use nanoparticles for beautiful art," Liu says. "We wanted to see if this could have scientific applications."

When various fluids filled the cup, Liu suspected, they would change how the vibrating electrons in the glass interacted, and thus the color. (Today’s home pregnancy tests exploit a separate nano-based phenomenon to turn a white line pink.)

[Utilizer]

Using a microthin mylar electroplating on it to provide insulation.

[bunkerhill7]

No, it was Nefertiti who used powdered gold and silver as eye makeup so she would dazzle her Egyptian court

It was handed down finally to Cleopatra who dazzled Caesar.

He had his glazier artisans put it into cups so he could dazzle the barabarians.

[maine-iac7]

[null and void]

Actually true. Prior to that no one had ground the chocolate fine enough and it had a slimy mouth feel.

One confectioner’s accident and the world was blessed with smooth chocolate.

The process is call conching.

[maine-iac7]

kinda like the floating ivory soap bar - someone forgot to turn off the machine and it whipped air bubbles into it - and voila! the bar that wouldn’t sink.

[null and void]

Yes, and the entire synthetic dye industry was launched by a failed attempt to synthesize quinine.

Opportunity is where you recognize it.

[maine-iac7]

and then there’s the slinky! ;o)

[null and void]

and Silly Putty!

[maine-iac7]

ahahah

we’ve got quite a list -

Invention is kinda like life - it’s what happens while you’re busy making other plans

[Dustbunny]

Beautiful

[colorado tanker]

So, Rome was a nano-state?

[SunkenCiv]