One of the joys of my recent past has been getting to know Chris Graney, a historian of science who works at a little community college in Louisville, Kentucky, but who has been setting the world of the history of science on its ear with a series of remarkable articles about the anti-Copernican astronomers of the 17th century.
You’ve probably heard it before… Galileo challenged the world and changed the face of science by insisting that one look at the evidence, rather than relying on authority the way that everyone else did in those days. Right? Except… what you probably know about “everyone else” is what you yourself heard, or read, from some other authority!
Graney has actually read the books by “everyone else” and, surprise… reality turns out to be much more interesting than what “everybody knows.”
He now has a book out, from Notre Dame Press, with details to be found here.
Meanwhile, if you haven’t had enough about Galileo – who, to me, is a hero but for different reasons than you usually hear about – there’s now a series of twelve lectures about Galileo available from Now You Know media. If the author of those lectures sounds familiar… well, I’m no Chris Graney, but I have certainly been inspired by him!
