Related papers: Around Kepler's "Dream"

In his late work (De venatione sapientiae), Cusanus unfolded basic ideas of his brilliant theology. After a long period, this ingenious teaching became clearly recognizable especially in our time. Forward with his face to the back, modern…

It is very common to introduce quantum physics in an historical context. Though there are advantages to this, it is a problem that many of the stories that have become central to the physics lore are mere pseudo-histories far detached from…

This paper presents high-resolution images of the original document of the 24 February 1616 condemnation of the Copernican system, as being "foolish and absurd in philosophy", by a team of consultants for the Roman Inquisition. Secondary…

The size of the diameter of the Sun has been debated for a very long time. First tackled by the Greek astronomers from a geometric point of view, an estimate, although incorrect, has been determined, not truly called into question for…

Why do some discoveries, which appear in hindsight to be obviously major discoveries, have so little impact when they were made. These are discoveries that were ahead of their time, but for some reason the scientific community was not ready…

From the geocentric, closed world model of Antiquity to the wraparound universe models of relativistic cosmology, the parallel history of space representations in science and art illustrates the fundamental role of geometric imagination in…

This is a short, light spirited account of how some possibly important science actually happened. It very much conflicts with Popper's contention that the key to scientific progress is falsification.

The career and accomplishments of Julian Schwinger, who shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965, have been reviewed in numerous books and articles. For this reason these Memories, which seek to convey a sense of Schwinger's remarkable…

E. B. Gliner started his scientific career in 1963 at the age of 40. In 1965, when the existence of the cosmological constant $\lambda$ seemed unnecessary to most cosmologists, he renewed interest in the problem by emphasizing a material…

I discuss how modern cosmology illustrates under-determination of theoretical hypotheses by data, in ways that are different from most philosophical discussions. I emphasize cosmology's concern with what data could in principle be collected…

The NASA Kepler mission -in flight since March 2009- is producing an enormous number of high-quality continuous light curves. Now, and for the first time ever, we are able to do ensemble asteroseismology, i.e., to do an asteroseismic…

[Abridged] In the late nineteenth century, Mars emerged as one of the most intensively reported astronomical objects in the popular press, driven by favourable oppositions, improved telescopic capabilities and growing speculation regarding…

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the…

The Domus Aurea, Nero's last "palace" constructed in the very heart of ancient Rome, is a true masterpiece of Roman architecture. We explore here symbolic aspects of the emperor's project, analysing the archaeoastronomy of the best…

One evening, a father tells his three daughters, Luc\'ia, In\'es, and Ana, a bedtime story unlike any other. It is a tale of four silent architects ($c$, $\hbar$, $G$, and $\Lambda$) whose presence or absence shapes the very fabric of…

Carl Gustav Hempel (1905-1997) formulated the dilemma that carries his name in an attempt to determine the boundaries of physics. Where does physics go over into metaphysics? The purpose of this contribution is to indicate how a recently…

Some seventy five years ago, the concept of dark matter was introduced by Zwicky to explain the anomaly of galactic rotation curves, though there is no clue to its identity or existence to date. In 1997, the author had introduced a model of…

In March 2009, NASA will launch the Kepler satellite -- a mission designed to discover habitable Earth-like planets around distant Sun-like stars. The method that Kepler will use to detect distant worlds will only reveal the size of the…

Vesto Melvin Slipher was the first astronomer to clearly define the factors that determine the "speed" of a nebular spectrograph. This brief historical summary recounts the way these ideas developed and how Slipher's early work on galaxy…

Bohr's interpretation of quantum mechanics has been criticized as incoherent and opportunistic, and based on doubtful philosophical premises. If so Bohr's influence, in the pre-war period of 1927-1939, is the harder to explain, and the…