Adam Gopnik in a recent New Yorker article discusses the
interaction between the blog scientists favorite icon and the
Catholic Church. Reading Gopnik, Galileo spent much of his life
being both a brilliant scientist and a skater on thin ice. Today
we lose sight of the fact that Galileo invented relativity, that
is that told us how when two bodies move, the perceived velocity
of each is relative to the other and we still refer to this as a
Galilean frame. The concept was disturbing in a world where the
Earth was the unmoving center of all, but necessary once one
adopted the Copernican view of the solar system. If the bunnies
want this in denial speak, well, here we are, you are telling
Eli that the Earth is rotating like crazy and moving a huge
speed around the sun? That's crazy. Next thing you will tell me
is that people are animals and changing the climate for worse.
Relativity was the root of Galileo's problems with the Church.
His modus vivendi was one adopted by many scientists today, the
best example bei