BBC Future The secret lab hidden inside a famous monumentIll just open the hatch says Richard Smith, who is stooped over in the ticket office at the Monument. Hes examining the oak panelled floor as though its hiding a secret chamber, as in an Indiana Jones movie. Above him, a desk is piled high with leaflets This is to certify that has climbed the 3. Monument. The thing is, there are actually 3. The Monument to the Great Fire of London consists of a towering, 2. On the inside, a striking spiral staircase stretches all the way to the top, twisting up like the peel of an apple carved in a single, continuous ribbon. For years, a cracked plaque tacked to the base explained that it had been designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Adobe Photoshop Cs6 Keygen For Mac on this page. Again, this isnt entirely truthful. It makes a lot of sense that the capitals beloved Monument would be borne of Britains most celebrated architect. After all, Wren was widely involved in rebuilding London after the Great Fire destroyed pretty much every inch of ground within the city walls including 1. Even old hands at the secret menu are often surprised when you order this item and actually receive it. Great summer treat. TeaAid. Half tea, half lemonade. One of the most obvious perceived contradictions between Torah and science is the age of the universe. Is it billions of years old, like scientific data, or is it. A3YimITgOjN2M_AGgygqYXXXL4j3HpexhjNOf_P3YmryPKwJ94QGRtDb3Sbc6KY' alt='Our Secret Universe The Hidden Life Of The Cell Surgeon' title='Our Secret Universe The Hidden Life Of The Cell Surgeon' />Whittingtons Longhouse, one of the largest public toilets in Europe. He even created the nearby St Pauls Cathedral. In fact, the Monument was designed by his close friend a scientist. Robert Hooke was a man of many passions, who applied his enquiring mind to subjects as diverse as chemistry and map making, at the sober end of the scale, and folk beliefs about toads and his own bowel movements at the other. In his day, he had a reputation as lofty as the pillar itself, variously described as Englands Leonardo and certainly the greatest mechanick sic this day in the world. Today his name has largely been forgotten, but his contributions have endured. Among other things, he coined the word cell to describe the basic unit of life they reminded him of Monks rooms, or cells, devised Hookes law of elasticity arguably not particularly exciting, but useful and invented mechanisms still used in clocks and cameras to this day. Our Secret Universe The Hidden Life Of The Cell StoreAfter the fire, Hooke tried his hand at architecture too, designing hospitals, civic buildings and churches across the city. He didnt get a lot of credit, partly because most of his achievements were signed off by, and mistakenly attributed to, Wren and partly because some of them werent very good. One such project was the Bethlem Royal Hospital. In an age where charity was increasingly fashionable, this new psychiatric hospital was designed more for its visitors than its patients. The focus on aesthetics was so extreme, it was widely mocked as a palace for lunatics. Baixar Nero 8 Mais Serial Gratis'>Baixar Nero 8 Mais Serial Gratis. Among other features, it boasted an ornate faade that cracked the building with its weight and a garden bordered by dangerously low walls though patients might have escaped, at least they didnt obscure the splendor of the building. Needless to say, the hospital name, corrupted to Bedlam,  remains synonymous with chaos to this day. Then came the Monument. It was supposed to be a grand acknowledgement of the fire, but at the time, what Hooke really wanted was to build a very long telescope says Maria Zack, a mathematician at Point Loma Nazarene University, California. In the end, he decided to combine both. My guide for the day is Richard Smith, a Londoner with a Cockney accent and infectious enthusiasm for this enigmatic pillar. He lifts up the hatch the only clue to which is a couple of wrought iron hinges and disappears underground. It leads to yet more stairs. Eventually we find ourselves in a room with a domed roof. The ancient brick walls are bare and crumbling and it smells damp, like clothes that have been left in the washing machine for too long. This part is usually off limits to visitors, though I cant help thinking they probably dont mind all that much. Today the room is empty, except for a wireless router and some sensors. When they put the building next door up a couple of years ago, they had to make sure they didnt accidentally knock this one down, says Smith. But a few hundred years ago, it was a state of the art physics lab. To see why, Smith ushers me into the centre of the room. Looking up through a metal grate, theres a clear view all the way through the spiral staircase, up to the highest point in the building. Right at the top, hidden inside a decorative golden orb, is yet another trap door this time made of heavy iron. When its opened, you can look all the way up, from the basement lab into the night sky. In fact, the entire building is a giant telescope. This isnt as bonkers as it sounds. Back in the 1. 7th Century, scientists were still arguing about whether the Sun revolved around the Earth or the other way around. Like all rational people today, Hooke was thoroughly convinced by the latter. But no one could prove it. In theory, it should have been easy, thanks to astronomical parallax, an apparent shift in the position of one object, against a backdrop of another. To experience parallax, all you need to do is hold out a finger and squint at it though one eye, then close that eye and open the other. Though all thats changed is your viewing perspective, your finger will appear to move. Its a concept we all understand intuitively, says Zack. Scaling this up, if the Earth changes its position relative to the stars, while circling the Sun then they should appear to jump from one place to another over the course of a year. The catch is just how tiny these movements are. Take Gamma Draconis, a giant orange coloured star around 9. Instead of measuring the movement of objects in the sky, from planets to satellites, in metres or inches, astronomers divide up the heavens like the face of an imaginary clock. Every six months, the star moves north or south in the sky at a scale equivalent to the hands moving 2. To magnify parallax enough to see it, you need a very large telescope indeed. Hookes first idea was to embed one in his lodgings at Gresham College, where he was professor of geometry. The 3. 6 foot 1. In the end, it passed through two floors and out through the roof. Next, Hooke chose his star. Gamma Draconis was the ideal candidate, because its relatively bright and passes directly overhead. Now all he had to do was wait for it to pass overhead he was ready to change our perspective on the Universe forever. Except it didnt work. The measurements depended on lining the lenses up exactly, but the structure just wasnt stable enough. They were fixed in place using a wooden structure a material known to expand in heat and flex in the wind. Instead, he turned to the Monument. This time, he was determined the structure would be sturdy. His plans called for 2. Portland stone, which is roughly the weight of 1. This wasnt just some flimsy narrow tube like the other telescope, says Zack. The construction took the best part of six years, mostly because they kept running out. Eventually the king issued a proclamation, forbidding anyone from transporting rocks from the Isle of Portland without first consulting Wren, who was officially in charge of the project. There were a few other hiccups along the way, such as the suggestion that it should be topped by a statue of the king, Charles II. This would have ruled out using it as a telescope, of course. Wren was like Oh, I know what you mean, but wouldnt it be better to have this nice golden orb on the top Then you can use it to shoot fireworks. Zack, while pointing out that the need for a firework launching pad would hardly have been at the forefront of peoples minds.