Saturday, January 30, 2021
Best 3000 years ago, best now
Pointed by Zuhlsdorf, a remarkable archeological find in Israel. Intact scraps of woven woolen fabric, dyed with 'royal purple', from 1000 BC in the same place and time as Solomon and David.
Not necessarily used by either Sol or Dave, but at least close to their households.
To my eyes the fabric is more impressive than the dye. The warp and woof held together perfectly, and the fibers look good as new.
The article reviews a modern attempt to make the same dye, which required several years of trial and error in a lab full of chromatographs and electron microscopes.
SCIENCE FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND BEAUTY is extremely old, and is still the best use of science.
Entertainment and beauty seem ephemeral and evanescent, but they tend to last a lot longer than other uses of science and technology. Beauty holds the warp and woof of civilization together. Science for the sake of theory unravels civilization.
EXPERIENCE SURVIVES. THEORY KILLS.
Labels: Entertainment
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