Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilisation

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In a time when our political and cultural views feel more polarized than ever, Tyson provides a much-needed antidote to so much of what divides us, while making a passionate case for the twin chariots of enlightenment—a cosmic perspective and the rationality of science.

If you lower the air pressure well below the level where you’d suffocate and die, there exists a pressure and temperature for which water boils as it freezes." Very large image (5.0M). Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) published Sidereus Nuncius, or the 'Starry Messenger' in 1610. In it he provided a lively and accessible account of his telescopic work: his observations of the Moon and, particularly, his discovery and observations of four satellites around Jupiter. The lunar observations showed that the surface of the moon was not smooth and perfectly spherical, but was pitted with craters and had mountains. The observations of the Jovian satellites showed that the Earth was not the only centre of rotation in the universe. Both these discoveries were blows to the Aristotelian world-view which was geocentric and maintained that everything above the Earth was perfect and incorruptible. This is an ideas book. Aside from "question your assumptions and biases, and put your trust in objective truth based on confirmed and tested evidence", NDT isn't actually trying to say anything here. The entire book is premised on questioning our perspectives and biases and how that can make us blind to other perspectives.Sidereus Nuncius (usually Sidereal Messenger, also Starry Messenger or Sidereal Message) is a short astronomical treatise (or pamphlet) published in Neo-Latin by Galileo Galilei on March 13, 1610. [1] It was the first published scientific work based on observations made through a telescope, and it contains the results of Galileo's early observations of the imperfect and mountainous Moon, of hundreds of stars not visible to the naked eye in the Milky Way and in certain constellations, and of the Medicean Stars (later Galilean moons) that appeared to be circling Jupiter. [2] [3] Tyson does this sort of thing a lot. He shoehorns facts into places just because he can. I imagine he's the kind of guy at parties who constantly tries to show off all of his fun facts. "I see you're drinking wine. Did you know that the red color comes from the anthocyan pigments present in the skin of the grapes? Your shoes are made of leather. Did you know that traditional leather tanning methods took around 30 days to complete? Modern methods of mineral tanning are much faster and can complete this process within 1-2 days."

A dónde nos lleva esto? Quizá a ningún lugar, quizá a todos. En mi opinión, como humano, científico y residente de la Tierra, quizá lo más hermoso del universo es que es conocible. No se requieren mensajes escritos en tablas en el cielo para que esto sea así. Solo es. Para mí, este pináculo de verdad objetiva hace que el universo mismo sea lo más hermoso del universo" In observing the Moon, Galileo saw that the line separating lunar day from night (the terminator) was smooth where it crossed the darker regions of the Moon but quite irregular where it crossed the brighter areas. From this he deduced that the darker regions are flat, low-lying areas, and the brighter regions rough and mountainous. [3] Basing his estimate on the distance of sunlit mountaintops from the terminator, he judged, quite accurately, that the lunar mountains were at least four miles high. Galileo's engravings of the lunar surface provided a new form of visual representation, besides shaping the field of selenography, the study of physical features on the Moon. [2] Galileo's drawings of the Pleiades star cluster from Sidereus Nuncius. Image courtesy of the History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries. Stars [ edit ] Isabelle Pantin. Sidereus Nuncius: Le Messager Celeste. Paris: Belles Lettres, 1992. ASIN B0028S7JLK. century scientist Leonard Digges was described as pointing an early reflector/refractor device at the sky to see "myriads of stars" and Thomas Harriot made moon observations several months before Galileo's. See Telescope400 and The Three GalileosBringing his cosmic perspective to civilization on Earth, Neil deGrasse Tyson shines new light on the crucial fault lines of our time—war, politics, religion, truth, beauty, gender, and race—in a way that stimulates a deeper sense of unity for us all. Stillman Drake. Telescopes, Tides, and Tactics: A Galilean Dialogue about The Starry Messenger and Systems of the World, including translation of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius. London: University Of Chicago Press, 1983. 256 pp. ISBN 978-0226162317. The aim of thisproject is to make available electronically some aspects of the early history ofastronomy for the use of students studying the History and Philosophy ofScience in the University. The project has aspired to be 'educational' in another sense in that graduate students in the Department havecontributed to its construction. By drawing on the rich collection ofinstruments and books in the Whipple Collection, the University Library andthe Wren Library, we have sought to produce a history of astronomy whichfocuses on the uses of astronomy and its instruments, as well as on thepractitioners of astronomy. We hope that this project goes some way towardsillustrating the variety of uses (astrology, weather prediction, calendarreform) and inspirations (e.g. poetry), people in past societies andcultures found in astronomy. The first telescopes appeared in the Netherlands in 1608 when Middelburg spectacle-maker Hans Lippershey tried to obtain a patent on one. [5] By 1609 Galileo had heard about it and built his own improved version. He probably was not the first person to aim the new invention at the night sky [6] but his was the first systematic (and published) study of celestial bodies using one. [7] One of Galileo's first telescopes had 8x to 10x linear magnification and was made out of lenses that he had ground himself. [8] This was increased to 20x linear magnification in the improved telescope he used to make the observations in Sidereus Nuncius. [9] [3] Content [ edit ] Galileo's sketches of the Moon from Sidereus Nuncius.

a b c Raphael, Renée. Sidereus nuncius; or, A Sidereal Message, by Galileo Galilei. Isis, Vol. 101, No. 3 (September 2010), pp. 644-645. Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society. Spiller, Elizabeth A. (2000). "Reading through Galileo's Telescope: Margaret Cavendish and the Experience of Reading". Renaissance Quarterly. 53 (1): 192–221. doi: 10.2307/2901537. JSTOR 2901537. S2CID 191407323. My brain thrills at thought experiments. I could read them all day. It is so exciting to see things in a new way, to flip around the way one thinks about something, to rationalize instead of accepting things emotionally. This book, additionally to educating us about how certain aspects of our current world work, teaches us to look at the world and see how far we've come. What we wouldn't have (creature comforts as well as the so-called bare necessities of modern life) if it wasn't for science and research.For instance, I thought I had enough information on vegetarianism or racism in theory but as it turns out Vegetarians are also "cannibals" and democrats were historically more "racist"...etc. With regard to this, Tyson observes, "Of all professions, scientists may be uniquely capable of generating and sustaining peace among nations. We all speak the same basic language....The laws of biology, chemistry, and physics remain the same." On average, the human brain is 2.5 percent of our body weight, yet for some ant species, their brains are closer to 15 percent of their body weight.​"​ I enjoyed reading the candour that he used. This book might rub people the wrong way, but science often does. He also drew in a bit of Biblical perspective, which I thought was super cool.