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The story of Alice, first introduced in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871), holds a deep connection to the Victorian era's fascination with alternate realities, paradoxes, and the exploration of one's own identity. The idea of stepping through a mirror to enter another world taps into the Victorian preoccupation with boundaries—be they between childhood and adulthood, reality and fantasy, or the material and the spiritual.
During the late 19th century, the Victorian era was marked by intense intellectual curiosity. It was a time when science, religion, and the supernatural collided, prompting many to question the nature of reality. Alice’s journey through the looking-glass can be seen as a metaphor for a deeper philosophical exploration. Mirrors, throughout history, have symbolized duality—the reflection of oneself, but also the possibility of something more. In Alice's case, the looking-glass serves as a portal to a world that is both familiar and strange, where logic is upended, and the laws of reality seem to bend.
The layers within Alice's story suggest that life itself is a journey of transformation, self-discovery, and the breaking of societal constraints. Alice, though young, embodies a deep sense of curiosity and adventure, reflecting the growing spirit of rebellion and individualism that characterized Victorian youth. At the same time, her journey through the looking-glass speaks to the Victorian obsession with introspection and the search for truth in a rapidly changing world.
In many ways, Alice’s passage through the mirror offers a playful yet profound exploration of the human psyche. As we reflect on her story, we might also consider how we, too, are constantly searching for meaning, whether in dreams, the mysteries of the world around us, or the inner depths of our own minds.
During the late 19th century, the Victorian era was marked by intense intellectual curiosity. It was a time when science, religion, and the supernatural collided, prompting many to question the nature of reality. Alice’s journey through the looking-glass can be seen as a metaphor for a deeper philosophical exploration. Mirrors, throughout history, have symbolized duality—the reflection of oneself, but also the possibility of something more. In Alice's case, the looking-glass serves as a portal to a world that is both familiar and strange, where logic is upended, and the laws of reality seem to bend.
The layers within Alice's story suggest that life itself is a journey of transformation, self-discovery, and the breaking of societal constraints. Alice, though young, embodies a deep sense of curiosity and adventure, reflecting the growing spirit of rebellion and individualism that characterized Victorian youth. At the same time, her journey through the looking-glass speaks to the Victorian obsession with introspection and the search for truth in a rapidly changing world.
In many ways, Alice’s passage through the mirror offers a playful yet profound exploration of the human psyche. As we reflect on her story, we might also consider how we, too, are constantly searching for meaning, whether in dreams, the mysteries of the world around us, or the inner depths of our own minds.
Back in 1786, a French botanist named André Michaux was wandering around Baghdad when he stumbled upon this really cool black stone near the Taq Kasra ruins. It had some pretty odd carvings and writing on it, and Michaux was totally fascinated. He ended up keeping it with him for three and a half years before bringing it back to France.
Now, Michaux was already well-known for his massive collection of plants and seeds, but in 1800, he sold the stone to the French Museum of Antiquities for around 1,200 francs. The museum stored it in the National Library, and it quickly became a talking point among historians all over Europe. It was essentially the first complete written proof of ancient Mesopotamian civilization to make its way to the continent.
This kudurru, which dates back to between 1099 and 1082 B.C. during the reign of Marduk-nadin-ahhe in Babylon, stands about 46 centimeters tall, is 20 centimeters wide, and weighs a solid 22 kilograms. It has 95 lines of text and 21 symbols. In 1861, Henry Rawlinson started working on transcribing it, and Jules Oppert finished the whole translation in 1895. Michaux’s find really changed the game for how Europeans understood Mesopotamian culture.
In around 240 BC, a Greek philosopher named Eratosthenes made a groundbreaking discovery that still impresses us today. He was in charge of the Library of Alexandria and used his knowledge of the sun to figure out the size of the Earth. On the summer solstice, he noticed that in the city of Syene (now Aswan, Egypt), the sun was directly overhead, while in Alexandria, it cast a small shadow. Eratosthenes realized that the difference in angles between the two locations could be used to calculate the Earth's circumference.— in United Kingdom.
By measuring the angle of the shadow in Alexandria and knowing the distance between the two cities, he came up with a surprisingly accurate estimate of the Earth's size. His result was 39,375 kilometers (about 24,662 miles), which was very close to the actual circumference of around 40,075 kilometers (24,901 miles). It’s an amazing achievement when you think about how long ago it happened and how little technology was available to him.
This clever method didn’t just show Eratosthenes' genius, but also his ability to connect different ideas and observations to figure out something that seemed impossible at the time. His work laid the groundwork for future scientists to understand the world on a much larger scale. Eratosthenes might have been working in ancient times, but his discovery is still relevant today, and it shows how far human curiosity and intellect can take us.
"Eratosthenes' experiment strongly suggested that the Earth wasn't flat. By observing the angles of shadows in two different locations and calculating the Earth's circumference, he demonstrated that the Earth has a curved surface. If the Earth were flat, the sun’s rays would create the same shadow angle everywhere at the same time, which clearly wasn’t the case.
This groundbreaking work is one of the earliest scientific demonstrations of the Earth’s spherical shape. His method, using logic, observation, and mathematics, still inspires modern science.
By measuring the angle of the shadow in Alexandria and knowing the distance between the two cities, he came up with a surprisingly accurate estimate of the Earth's size. His result was 39,375 kilometers (about 24,662 miles), which was very close to the actual circumference of around 40,075 kilometers (24,901 miles). It’s an amazing achievement when you think about how long ago it happened and how little technology was available to him.
This clever method didn’t just show Eratosthenes' genius, but also his ability to connect different ideas and observations to figure out something that seemed impossible at the time. His work laid the groundwork for future scientists to understand the world on a much larger scale. Eratosthenes might have been working in ancient times, but his discovery is still relevant today, and it shows how far human curiosity and intellect can take us.
"Eratosthenes' experiment strongly suggested that the Earth wasn't flat. By observing the angles of shadows in two different locations and calculating the Earth's circumference, he demonstrated that the Earth has a curved surface. If the Earth were flat, the sun’s rays would create the same shadow angle everywhere at the same time, which clearly wasn’t the case.
This groundbreaking work is one of the earliest scientific demonstrations of the Earth’s spherical shape. His method, using logic, observation, and mathematics, still inspires modern science.