Two thousand years ago, a Greek mechanic created a machine that predicted with unnerving accuracy the motions of the celestial bodies. The device, pulled up from a shipwreck in 1901, became known as the Antikythera Mechanism. It took more than a century for researchers to figure out its astronomical purpose.
You have to wonder what that ancient Greek gearhead would think if he saw what’s in this video.
Earlier this year, a team of designers sponsored by Digital Science re-created the machine out of Legos. Yep, the same plastic toys that children use to build castles, dump trucks and Millenium Falcons. This makes one wonder if Lego will consider boxing up a Antikythera Mechanism for the 2011 holiday season.
(After marveling over this video, check out this behind-the-scenes video that shows how the stop-action filming was done.)