Pebble might be key to Earth’s origin

Hypatia, the first great female astronomer and mathematician, lived in Egypt in the 5th Century AD. 

Following a smear campaign by Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, this tolerant pagan was lynched by Christian monks in 415. What Voltaire called ‘Cyril’s tonsured hounds’ dragged the 60-year old pacifist into a church, stripped her naked, and battered her to death.

Artists and writers have been inspired by Hypatia’s story and the 2009 film, Agora, chronicled her life. In it, she embraces Aristarchus’ theory that the sun, not the Earth, is the centre of the solar system. There is no historical evidence that she anticipated Copernicus, but a pebble discovered in her native Egypt may herald another astronomical revolution. A mysterious ‘Hypatia stone’ is challenging current theories of the Earth’s origin.