I'm amazed to learn that the pottery of ancient Greece may help
to improve the safety of space travel. The Israel Herald
reports: The study of the chemical and physical properties of
ancient Attic pottery would help improve space missions, believe
scientists. Considering it importance, the National Science
Foundation (NSF) awarded nearly 500,000 dollars to scientists
from the Getty Conservation Institute, Stanford's National
Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) and the Aerospace Corporation
earlier this year to study the secrets of Attic pottery. Among
other objectives, it is hoped that the project will improve our
understanding of iron-spinel chemistry, which is critical to the
advanced ceramics used for thermal protection in aerospace
applications, such as protective tiles on the Mars Rover
Sojourner, or the fleet of space shuttles, for example. Attic
pottery features red and black figures and was a fixture in
ancient Greece from the sixth to fourth centuries B.C.Red-figure
Attic pottery, circa 530 BC (image court