Deep Dive: From Edison's Kinetographic Camera to Caligula and the Body's Building Blocks - August 31, 2025

In this Deep Dive episode, our hosts discuss how a single patent, ancient power, and everyday chemistry connect to culture and perception.

• 📜 Edison received a patent in 1897 for the kinetographic camera—an incremental improvement on the kinetoscope that helped pave the way for the motion-picture projector, its cultural ripple effects, and the industrial advantages patents give inventors.
• 🎂 Birthdays today include Caligula (born August 31, AD 12), Maria Montessori (1870), and Itzhak Perlman (1945); the hosts focus on Caligula, exploring how sensational anecdotes, historiographical bias, and the mechanics of imperial power reshaped perceptions of Roman emperors and succession.
• 💡 Fact of the day: the human body contains enough iron to make a 3-inch nail, enough carbon for 900 pencils, and enough fat for 7 bars of soap—an exercise in translating microscopic composition into tactile, everyday objects to make scale and chemistry intuitive.

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