![\"Closeup](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760371327_947_960x0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Closeup of big gold nugget on a black background<\/p>\n
getty<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a real fascination with nanoscale worlds that has always intrigued humans \u2013 the question is how much ancient societies were able to interact with microscopic forces prior to the advent of digital technologies, and, most recently, artificial intelligence, which is quickly turning our scientific world inside out.<\/p>\n
What did those earlier civilizations do on the nanoscale? Did they make use of nanoscience at all?<\/p>\n
The answer, broadly, seems to be yes, although prior generations did not have the tools that we do now.<\/p>\n
In Silica<\/p>\n
I had my interest piqued by the promotional materials from this year\u2019s 10-9 celebration, where we celebrate nanotech as revolving around particles on the nanometer or \u201c10-9\u201d scale (1 billionth of a meter.) The authors were talking about the atavistic practice of glass-blowing, and how it really involved shifting the status of particles on a nanoscale. The heating, deformation and annealing of stained-glass windows, for instance, where impurities would deliver the colors and tones that would give cathedrals and other buildings their grandeur.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s even the suggestion (in recent studies) that this molecular miracle-making actually cleaned the air inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cChemists at Australia\u2019s Queensland University of Technology say that medieval glaziers produced paint using tiny particles of gold in different sizes, and used glass stained with these gold nanoparticles to decorate church windows across Europe,\u201d writes Judith Kane for Renaissance Magazine<\/a>. \u201cElectrons in the gold particles become very active when heated by sunlight and oscillations of the electrons can couple with the electro-magnetic field of sunlight, creating a resonance and enhancing the magnetic field on the surface of the gold nanoparticles, which destroys air borne pollutants such as methanol, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds.\u201d<\/p>\n I thought it was interesting how, in an aside enumerating the kinds of VOCs that this method would deal with, Kane talks about what chemicals are emitted by materials in upholstery, etc. as a \u201cnew car smell.\u201d<\/p>\n In any case, it seems the science of the early ages \u2018anno domini\u2019 knew how to use gold, a very special element, to some effect.<\/p>\n Ok, what else?<\/p>\n Shimmering Images and Nanomaterials<\/p>\n Another widespread use of nanoscale elements has to do with the reason that you look at a painting in the Louvre and see the range of color and visual power that makes some of these ancient works of art \u201cshine.\u201d<\/p>\n Art historians have identified the practice of crafting something called \u201czwischgold\u201d where a very thin golden patina is added to the oil paintings, in order to create a paler tone. The gold in this material, according to modern analysis, is around 20 to 50 nanometers thick.<\/p>\n And scientists are looking everywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cA survey of 162 objects was recently implemented at the Swiss National Museum Collection Centre, focusing on polychrome wooden sculptures mainly dated 1400\u20131550 and produced in southern Germany and Switzerland,\u201d write the authors of a modern paper<\/a> on zwischgold experimentation. \u201cHandheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements show a high rate of correlated silver and gold signals mainly in a proportion range of 1:5\u20133:1, indicating Zwischgold in extremely diverse areas such as hair, beard, crown, gown fold, bordure, dalmatic, undergarment and attribute of saint statues, as well as altar background, frame and framework.\u201d<\/p>\n So to put it simply, ancient artists and artisans used ultra-thin hammered gold with silver to gild all kinds of important items that are now, in this very different era, artifacts.<\/p>\n The Persistence of Alchemy<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to leave it to the reader to go back and research the crafting of \u201cDamascus steel,\u201d which apparently contained nanotubes, or the study of alchemy, where those long-dead engineers purported to be able to make stones into gold, or something.<\/p>\n Further back, we have all kinds of theories about whether the ancient Egyptians had some form of early nuclear energy, or some other nanotech applications, or whether the Hebrew Ark of the Covenant used gold to achieve localized radiation.<\/p>\n As recently as the medieval age, scientists were trying their hardest to do nanoscale science with whatever was handy, much of which got branded as the pursuit of \u201calchemy.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a cool little write-up comparing that old discipline to what people are doing now, with AI. I like how the writer\u2019s father got his degree at MIT.<\/p>\n