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A Paradigm Shifts

Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno was an interesting character in the development of scientific ideas. A Copernican, as followers of Copernicus' heliocentric model were known, he fearlessly promoted the Copernican theory and used it as inspiration for his own radical ideas. Giordano was the first to suggest that our solar system was not the only one in the universe, but that there were countless such star systems throughout the universe. Instead of a celestial sphere, he imagined space to have no limit. 57 years after Copernicus' death, Giordano Bruno was burnt alive at the stake for his ideas. The Inquisition, which was the enforcement arm of the Catholic Church, carried out his execution by fire - no wonder Stephen Hawking reports that less than twelve scientists had accepted Copernicus' theory between his death and Giordano's, 57 years later. The cost of doing so publicly was high and immediate.

Figure 9 - Giordano Bruno was a man of conviction

The Power of Conviction

Persecuted relentlessly, Bruno argued against the authority of the Catholic Church, imploring his contemporaries: "I beg you, reject antiquity, tradition, faith, and authority! Let us begin anew by doubting everything we assume has been proven!" He realized that the beliefs of his age were founded on groupthink and not credible thought. As such, many of the ideas, that people of his time held as sacred, were in fact, unfounded unsubstantiated falsehoods. "If the first button of one's coat is wrongly buttoned, all the rest will be crooked," he said. All to no avail. The grip of the Church was too strong. But he faced his death with courage, stating that: "I await your sentence with less fear than you pass it. The time will come when all will see what I see."

Bruno's case shows the folly of going beyond, what could be logically proved. His above quoted statement, is correct in every detail, yet in was not the only reason he was killed. In addition to these thoughts, Bruno also insisted that the "numberless earths circling around their suns" hosted alien life. Among those life forms, he asserted, could be found some that were more intelligent than humans.

His example shows that open-mindedness is beneficial, only when it limits itself to experimental observations, and empirical facts. He was correct about the nature of solar systems and that space extended beyond the then widely accepted limit of the celestial sphere (a position just beyond Saturn). However, his more fanciful ideas about aliens would prove incorrect for a very simple reason that we will elaborate on later. For now, the pendulum swings, from a man who sometimes postulated without evidence, to a man whose contributions to astronomy are almost entirely founded on his ability to collect voluminous amounts of evidence.

Tycho Brahe - The Empiricist

The lasting scientific legacy of Tycho Brahe (14 December 1546 - 24 October 1601) is his unfailing dedication to keeping an exhaustive catalogue of the most accurate astronomical observations of his time. How accurate? The YouTube science channel Crash Course Astronomy says they were: "twice as precise as similar observations by ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek astronomers." Amazingly it adds that, "Tycho's observations were not matched by those made by telescopes for a 100 years!" Think of that, it took scientists using telescopes a hundred years to match his naked eye observations! His commitment would prove to be a boon, not only to himself but to later scientific thinkers. Wikipedia comments that Tycho: "has been described as 'the first competent mind in modern astronomy to feel ardently the passion for exact empirical facts.' Born to Danish nobility, he got the very best education, which in his day included a detailed study of the Aristotelian worldview. From 12 years old he attended the University of Copenhagen, studying law in line with his uncle's wishes, but the discipline which most ardently appealed to him was astronomy. At his young age he was already keen on astronomical observations and made sure to watch the solar eclipse of 21 August, 1560. Now, just shy of turning fourteen, what appealed to him most was that the solar eclipse had been predicted, albeit with a margin of error of one day. He quickly grasped that had the tables used to predict the eclipse been more accurate, the margin of error would have disappeared. Later, in 1563, he observed a close conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Again he was left less than impressed by the Copernican and Ptolemaic tables accumulated by the scholars of his time. These two events, which both occurred before he was 20, left him with a deep desire to improve on the methods and accuracy of astronomical measurement. He realized that the key to advancing the field he had begun to love and wanted to dedicate his adult pursuits to, was continual, rigorous, and precise observations. Only such disciplined observations would yield the accuracy he was now convinced was necessary to gain a greater understanding of the universe! And this he did, night after night with the aid of the most accurate instruments money could buy.

Tycho Brahe - The Aristocrat

It would be a mistake to conclude that Brahe's importance and success as an astronomer were due to his wealth. True, the fact that he came from nobility was not a disadvantage, but without the brains and dedication that he put into his career Brahe would not have accomplished much in astronomy. There are plentiful examples throughout this period, of noblemen who had wealth, access to the best education and plenty of time on their hands for scientific pursuits, who nonetheless did not accomplish anything in the scientific world, never mind, reaching the heights that Brahe did. His work ethic was instrumental in his accomplishments. The other central factors being his intelligence and curiosity about the world around him.

Figure 10 - Astronomer extraordinaire Wiki Media

A man of privilege, he was also greatly favoured by King Frederick II. After having published highly precise observations in 1574, he gained acclaim as a leading astronomer, leaving Denmark in the spring of the next year to tour Europe. Basel, Switzerland had a promising scientific community and Tycho planned to emigrate, so he could be a part of that city's culture of learning. It was exciting times. King Frederick had other ideas though. Over the years he had offered Tycho many lordships and the castles that went with Such honours, but Tycho's interests were wholly astronomical and he cared little for the prestige that such entitlements would have given him in society. He once wrote to a friend: "I did not want to take possession of any of the castles our benevolent king so graciously offered me. I am displeased with society, customary forms and the whole rubbish." Having learnt of his plans to emigrate, the king wanting to keep the now renowned scientist in the country changed tactics and offered him the island of Hven and the necessary funding to build his observatories. He built two: Uraniborg (the Castle of the Heavens), and later Stjerneborg (the castle of the stars) - to facilitate, even more accurate measurements. I include an excerpt from his Wikipedia profile as an explanation for why he built one castle with underground facilities, for:

This collection of instruments represented the state of the art in astronomical technology. Tycho was able to increase the accuracy of the instruments of his day by doubling their size. The Wikipedia quote continues...

That gives us a clear picture of the scope and level of dedication that Tycho Brahe's research center represented. This was no amateur astronomer on the roof of his house. In his aim to build on the accepted works of those who came before him, he tried to synthesize what he saw as the best of the Copernican model with what he considered to be the best parts of the Ptolemaic worldview. For him, while the moon orbited the earth, the other planets revolved around the sun. The sun, inturn revolved around the earth. The Tychonic Model was a hybrid, geo-heliocentric model of the universe.

By the age of 27 in the year 1573, he had published new findings that gave an updated understanding of the universe after having observed the supernovae of the previous year. As was his custom, on the night of 11 November 1572, he was observing the heavens. He saw a very bright star (now called SN 1572 and calculated to be 7500 lightyears away), that suddenly appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia. Taking careful note of its position, he noticed that it did not move in the night sky. As conventional wisdom - based on Aristotelian beliefs - held that nothing changed in the heavens, only within earth's atmosphere, he was faced with a dilemma. Based on the geometric principle of parallax, he knew that anything which was closer to earth than the moon should show parallax, especially if it was so close that it was within earth's atmosphere! This star did not. He was not the only observer of the phenomenon, but others argued that it must be closer than the moon, because it obviously changed and nothing changes farther out than the moon - due to the doctrine of the immutability of the heavens. This circular reasoning deeply frustrated him. He knew that some planets showed daily parallax, with the exception of far away outer planets. However, all planets showed parallax over a timescale, that extended into several months. Yet, his new celestial object did not - even over a period of many months. Through logical reasoning it became clear to Tycho that the only conclusion was that the object was beyond all celestial bodies that did show parallax! His newfound object, he surmised, was thus, not only outside the earth's atmosphere, but more than that, it was not even a planet - it was a star. A mutable star! The aforementioned publication of his insights in 1573 was entitled De Nova Stella (The New Star). Thus, through diligent nightly observation, impeccable empirical evidence, and an incisive, heterodox mind was the term "nova" coined, and a new star discovered. Today, nova, finds itself in the name of all such stars - supernova.

Understanding Parallax

The illustration below, shows the earth at two locations that are six months apart in its yearly orbit of the Sun. Move your perspective to each of the planets, and line up the yellow star until it is directly above the earth. That is, until the line that connects the star to the earth, is at a 90 degree right angle to the line that connects the earth to the Sun. Notice the background stars. Now do the same for the earth in its second position, lining up the yellow star similarly until it is directly above the earth. Again, notice that the background stars are now different! That is parallax. Switch perspectives back and forth, all the while noting the changing background. The closer an object is to us the more parallax it displays. The farther away it is from us the less parallax it displays. When objects are far enough away, there have no parallax at all, and we can no longer use this method to estimate distance.

Tycho's findings dealt two blows to the Aristotelian belief in the immutability of the heavens. Firstly, his practice of taking only the most accurate measurements gave him empirical proof that supernovae could not possibly be within earth's atmosphere as they are too far away to exhibit any parallax, and all celestial phenomena that was closer to earth than the moon would be near enough to have this characteristic. This conclusion went against conventional wisdom, that held supernovae to be tailless comets that occurred within earth's atmosphere. His measurements also allowed him to show that comets themselves were not the earth-bound phenomena they were purported to be. Aristotle had said all comets occur within the earth's atmosphere and thus they didn't pass through any of his crystal spheres that were necessary to hold up the planets and all visible celestial bodies. But Tycho showed that comets do cross the supposed regions where celestial crystal spheres were said to exist - and thus block transit, of criss-crossing heavenly bodies! The fact that comets could move freely without any impediment to their path, clearly proved that there were no such things as crystal spheres, holding up some heavenly bodies, for they would have been shattered by the incoming comets and other celestial debris. There was nothing blocking the transit of heavenly objects through the empty regions of our universe.

Had he practiced his science in the age of the telescope, his fastidiousness for accuracy of measurement would have made him an even greater force for the rapid advancement of true science, for in addition to his exacting personality and his scientific competency, undoubtedly his streak for independent thinking would surely have led him to make more and even grander discoveries. As it happened, he was the last and greatest of the naked-eye astronomers - the telescope being invented in the same decade that he died!

Galileo Galilei: From Discovery to the Inquisition

By the turn of the seventeenth century, there was a growing divide between the Aristotelian and Copernican worldviews. With the power of the Inquisition behind them, false religion and false science had dominance on their side, but the cracks were starting to show. Enter Galileo Galilei, an Italian scientist who had a magnificent, incisive mind. Out of fear of the Inquisition and the penalties it could impose, Copernicus had not published his theory, but when the time for truth arrives, it arrives - and its torrent becomes an unstoppable flood. In its efforts to stem that tide, the Roman Catholic Church continued its practice of severe opposition for any thinking or publication that challenged Catholic doctrine.

To understand the development of science in the time of Galileo we have to review the independent progression of three important factors. We have already touched on the slow adoption of Copernicus' heliocentric model of the universe, the second and third factors are Galileo stumbling upon the power of mathematics and the contemporaneous invention of the spyglass, which would soon prove to - quite literally - be Galileo's portal to understanding the heavens. Born in 1564, Galileo first studied to be a monk, but seven year's later in 1581, he was studying medicine at the University of Pisa due to his father's wishes for him to be a doctor. It was during this time, in 1583, that his interests shifted dramatically after he discovered his deep love for mathematics. He had to leave university before he earned his degree and moved back to Florence to study mathematics and physics. The model of the universe at his point in his life was still very much the Aristotelian one. Starting to get a good grasp of his chosen disciplines, Galileo started to publish scientific literature including The Little Balance and On Motion, in 1586 and 1590 respectively. With a growing reputation and rising influence as a leading scientific thinker, he was appointed in 1589 to the chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa, he was now 25 years old. However, the pay was very meager and he managed to land a better position through the efforts of a family friend at the more prestigious University of Padua in 1592. The higher salaries of doctors was the reason his father had initially wanted him to study medicine instead of mathematics. Now, with his father having died a year earlier, Galileo had the responsibility, as the firstborn, to provide for his mother and younger siblings. Throughout this period Galileo found himself more and more disillusioned with the Aristotelian model of the universe, which was still the accepted basis of all cosmology at that time. By 1604 Galileo was confident enough in his understanding and expertise that he formally broke with the teachings of Aristotle and would declare that he believed in the heliocentric model of the universe as proposed by Copernicus. This was bold.

Meanwhile, in the year 1594, a German spectacle maker named Hans Lipperhey moved to Middleburg in what is now the Netherlands. He had married in the year of his arrival and became a Dutch citizen in 1602. As it turned out, Lipperhey was the first person to apply for a patent for what he called the "Dutch perspective glass". The date: 2nd October 1608. He described the instrument as something: "for seeing things far away as if they were nearby" - and that it was. It is unclear from historical records if he invented the perspective glass, as there were many other optometrists who shortly filed for similar patents, however the record books credit Lipperhey with the first application for its patent. (The Dutch perspective glass would soon be renamed the telescope in 1611 by Giovanni Demisiani). Lipperhey's telescope had three-times (3X) magnification power and this would be improved to six-times magnification by the summer of the next year by Thomas Harriot. Upon application for his patent, the 'invention' of the telescope was published in a diplomatic report at the end of 1608 and widely distributed throughout Europe. This ensured that many in the scientific community heard of and tried to improve on the design of this new tool. Of course, it was not until news of the new invention reached Galileo Galilei that its design was - through his efforts - vastly improved, with startling results, that would forever change astronomy.

Barely a year after its invention, Galileo had improved the design to the point that he had a 30X magnification telescope and on 30 November 1609, he was the first person to use it to show that the moon was not a perfect and translucent heavenly sphere as argued by Aristotle, but had mountains and craters! Thomas Harriot had used the telescope for viewing the moon more than four months earlier, but he didn't discern the meaning of these features in the moonscape. Thereafter, Galileo's observations of groundbreaking discoveries came thick and fast. In January of the next year, within a time period of four days he observed strange objects next to Jupiter "lying in a straight line through it." He described them as small stars, to small to be visible to the naked eye. However within these four days as he kept observing night after night, he saw that they were changing positions and by the 10th of January, one of them had disappeared, which he rightly surmised, meant it was now behind Jupiter. The weight of his combined observations led him to conclude that they they were not stars, but moons. He had discovered three of Jupiter's four largest moons. Scientists now recognize 79 Jupiter moons (53 are named and 26 are still awaiting official names as of writing). Galileo discovered the fourth moon on January 13, 1610. A fruitful week if ever there was one.

If you are paying careful attention, you may already recognize the death blow for Aristotelian cosmology that these new observations represented. According to that philosophy, all celestial bodies revolved exclusively and without exception around the earth. What was the reaction of the scientific and religious communities? Disbelief. Not disbelief of the kind that inspires awe and wonder at the implausibility of something. No, disbelief as in the refusal to believe! What would you say was the cause of their hesitation? Clue, it had nothing to do with science or truth and everything to do with maintaining the accepted order of their day and more importantly, their place in that order! Galileo's repeated invitations to his fellow philosophers (as scientists were then known) at the university, and their repeated refusals to even look at his evidence caused him much grief and consternation!