Galileo Galilei – Nevertheless

Posted byRebecca BuddPosted inGalileo Galilei, ScienceTags:,

“Passion is the genesis of genius.”
Galileo Galilei

Pisa

Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy in 1564, twenty-one years after the passing of Nicolas Copernicus.  Yet, in years to come, Galileo would come to embrace his predecessor’s theory, and confirm its validity.  Considered the first great scientist of the modern age, Galileo insisted on observation and experimentation as the basis for scientific progress.

In 1609, Galileo traveled to Venice.  Here he found a novelty called a perspicillium, made by a Dutch spectacle maker.  Consisting of two lenses in a tube it could make a remote steeple look as if it were just across the road. An ingenious inventor, Galileo made one of his own but with ten times as much magnification.  In a flash of genius, Galileo used his telescope at night to look at the Moon and the stars.  What he saw was remarkable.  The Moon was not the perfect sphere as everyone had assumed; it also had mountains, valleys, cliffs and even evidence of seas.  Jupiter was not the perfect isolated sphere either; plus it had four moons of its own.  And Venus had phases, similar to the Moon. These discoveries could only signify the unthinkable for that time.  The Earth was not at the centre of the universe, but moved round the sun, as Copernicus had suggested 70 years earlier.

Galileo’s life is a testament to perseverance and optimism. “Nevertheless, it turns,” he said after being forced to renounce his Heliocentric view of the earth. His work was the genesis of the scientific revolution that was too powerful to hold back. Galileo died in 1642, the same year that Isaac Newton was born in England.  The journey would continue.

 “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” 
 Galileo Galilei

Published by Rebecca Budd

Blogger, Visual Storyteller, Podcaster, Traveler and Life-long Learner

20 thoughts on “Galileo Galilei – Nevertheless”

  2. I live that quote 🙂 I did copy it immediately. So true.
    Thank you for this great post!
    Have a great week
    Klausbernd and his busy Bookfayries Siri and Selma

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    1. “Nevertheless.” To me, that is the most powerful word for activism. It says, that you may have the power, but I have the truth. Thank you for stopping by – hugs to all!!

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      1. Great – we like hugs 🙂 🙂 🙂
        Have a fine week full of joy and hugs 😉
        Klausbernd and his Bookfayries Siri and Selma
        we are just refurbishing our kitchen – very busy but fun
        At the end of the week Dina comes back 🙂

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  5. Hi Rebecca,

    I’ve had a great weekend expanding my mind based on your posts so thanks again!

    This one is brilliant also!

    I love this!

    “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”

    🙂

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    1. I have had a wonderful time researching these remarkable scientists. Our lives may feel limited at times, but when you look at the progress that have been made and continue to be made, I feel I am participating in a grand adventure that will continue on …

      “Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”
      ― Winston Churchill

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  6. Aha! Great discoveries, great thinkers, great scientists We will see more great discoveries in the future. Everyday seems to bring new knowledge of the heavens.

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  7. I’ve been following your posts ever since my wife (Adventures of Dorrie Anne — I’m using her login to send this!) pointed them out to me.

    Thank you for bringing these historical vignettes to life. Even, or perhaps especially, after thirty years of working in science, I always enjoy retracing the paths that brought us to the present. When one is actively engaged in the doing of science, there is little time to reflect on history and the lives of those who had to sacrifice so much to push back the boundaries.

    In some ways things were very different in those distant times — notably in the pace of life — but the efforts required were nonetheless heroic. Thank you for reminding us.

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    1. Thank you for adding so much to the dialogue. Over the centuries Science has been the battleground between safety and risk. As I retraced the years, I recognized that I need to open my mind to new possibilities, embrace the uncertainty that exists in this universe that we call home. For that is where truth lies.

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  8. Do you remember “Angels and demons”? He was an angel with thoughts. Great man with great ideas !

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  9. Thanks for doing the research and sharing these great men with us, Rebecca. I suspect they wouldn’t be too surprised if they could come back and see what their successors achieved.

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    1. I have learned so much from my readings over the past weeks. And I have just barely scratched the surface of this subject. There is always something new around the corner of life. And there are so many corners out there to chose from! And that is the true adventure…

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