Celebrating 400 Years of Galileo

By Laura Knoy on Monday, August 24, 2009.

Four hundred years ago today, Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei demonstrated his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers. It was from this and other stronger telescopes that Galileo was able to discover mind-blowing details about our universe. His notion of a heliocentric system would cost him his freedom by the Roman Catholic Church, while his advancements in mathematics, motion and astronomy would earn him titles from the Father of Physics to the Father of Modern Science. We’ll look back at the life, achievements and legacy of Galileo Galilei.

Guests

  • John Gianforte, astronomy instructor for the Granite State College, professor of Physics at the University of New Hampshire and co-founder of the Astronomical Society of Northern New England; he has researched and lectured extensively on Galileo's accomplishments this year as part of the International Year of Astronomy
  • Dava Sobel, award-winning former science writer for the New York Times and author of several books including Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter
listen: Windows Media | MP3
Audio Help
Comments (1)
Email
Print
Public Insight
Share:

comments

All comments are moderated before appearing on the site. Comments must adhere to the NHPR.org comment guidelines and terms of use.

After 400 years Italy is still exporting scientists to the US
Lucia Kash - Tue, 08/25/2009 - 08:04

I have recently read a very interesting article in a leading Italian newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera, in which they mentioned the exhile of Italian brains from Italy to the US. Galileo was Italian and celebrated worldwide for his achievements, but let's also remember that Italy has a hard time retaining brilliant scientists because of need of reforms and lack of funds. This saddens me because Italian universities foster many brilliant students, but Italy lacks the means to retain them. Galileo represents one of the greatest brains that Italy has produced, unfortunately we need to go back centuries to find them all, the future ones left Italy to embrace their successful careers.