The New World of Galileo

Speaker - Professor William R Shea, University of Padua

To coincide with Galileo's first recorded astronomical observations using a telescope, the United Nations has scheduled 2009 to be the International Year of Astronomy.

In 1610 Galileo, who pioneered the use of quantitative experiments whose results could be analyzed with mathematical precision, published an account of his observations of the moons of Jupiter to demonstrate the sun-centered, Copernican theory of the universe against the dominant earth-centered model.

According to Stephen Hawking, Galileo is more responsible for creating the scientific method than anybody else and Albert Einstein called him the father of modern science.

In this richly illustrated lecture Professor William Shea, the holder of the Galileo Chair of the History of Science at the University of Padua, at which Galileo himself taught for 18 years, will explain his astronomical discoveries and explain why Galileo saw what he saw. "Seeing is believing but not everyone has the same visual experience and we all tend to see what we expect to find!"

Format of the evening

5.30pm  Tea and coffee served
6pm        Lecture begins
7pm        Lecture ends, short wine reception
8pm        Ends

Admission

The lecture is open to all and admission is free but by ticket only, available from Alys Hilbourne at the Geological Society.  See contact details below.