Ancient Fleas

Ancient Gears

Scott Locklin | Locklin On Science | 10th April 2022

Who invented gears? The ancient Greeks had the technology, and used it in intricate ways, as we know from Antikythera Mechanism. Aristotle and others wrote about gears. But surviving Greek sources make no reference to the novelty or invention of gears, suggesting that their origins may lie much further in the past — perhaps in the Bronze Age, with the Sumerians or the Egyptians (1,530 words)

Dunbar’s Number And Picking Fleas

Matt Webb | Interconnected | 5th April 2022

The evolutionary biologist Robin Dunbar conjectured in 1993 that the average person could maintain meaningful relationships with a maximum of 150 people, and that conversation was difficult in groups of more than four. Big data has been busy proving him right ever since. Most restaurant reservations are for groups of four. The average mobile phone user has 130 recurrent contacts (1,600 words)

Got 149 acquaintances? Room for one more. We'd love to send you five article recommendations, a podcast and a video tonight: