Galileo's Daughter, despite the somewhat misleading title, is first and foremost a biography of the great scientist, consisting primarily of narrative, interspersed with the hitherto unpublished letters from Virginia, by far the most talented of Galileo's three "illegitimate" children. Much has been written about his accomplishments and his place in history.ĭava Sobel has written a heartfelt and timely work that further illuminates Galileo's place in history. His final work, Two New Sciences, written while under house arrest, laid the foundation for the science of physics. He published a treatise on the geometric and military compass, studied the tides, the movement of falling bodies and projectiles, and examined the properties of floating objects. Galileo challenged the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic notions of the immutable universe with the earth as its center, by discovering orbiting satellites around the planet Jupiter, as well as transient sunspots. He improved the newly invented telescope, and turned it skyward. Galileo insisted on the importance of experimentation over speculation. It was Galileo who first published his findings in the vernacular, in this case, Italian, instead of Latin. Dava Sobel, Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love, Walker & Co., ISBN 0802713432, 448 pp., $27.00Īccording to Albert Einstein, Galileo is the father of modern science.
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