Since the era of Eratosthenes and Ptolemy, advances in science and mathematics have required data in excess of our ability to compute it readily.

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The chief librarians of ancient Alexandria included Eratosthenes (of Byzantium), who determined that the earth was round and measured its circumference, Callimachus, whose catalogue established the canon of Greek classics, and the lexicographer Aristophanes, who pioneered the science of etymology.

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The most recent leg of the mission, carried out via an exploration vessel called the Nautilus, surveyed the massive Eratosthenes Seamount (an underwater mountain), which covers an area more than 120km long by 80km wide and stands 2, 000m high.

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