Galileo: Decisive Innovator

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Galileo: Decisive Innovator
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Michael Sharratt
Preface by David Knight
SeriesCambridge Science Biographies
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:264
Dimensions(mm): Height 229,Width 152
Category/GenreBiographies: Historical, Political and Military
History of science
ISBN/Barcode 9780521566711
ClassificationsDewey:520.92
Audience
Tertiary Education (US: College)
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations 34 Halftones, unspecified

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 11 April 1996
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

In this entertaining and authoritative biography Michael Sharratt examines the flair, imagination, hard-headedness, clarity, combativeness, and penetration of Galileo Galilei. To follow his career as he exploited unforeseen opportunities to unseat established ways of comprehending nature is to understand a crucial stage of the Scientific Revolution. Galileo was a path-breaker for the newly-invented telescope, the decoder of nature's mathematical language, and a quite brilliant populariser of science. Even his reluctant excursion into theology has at last been officially and handsomely recognised by the Church's 'rehabilitation' of the Inquisition's most famous victim, fully discussed in the last chapter. This book makes his lasting contributions accessible to non-scientists and his mistakes are not overlooked. This is not a mythical story, but the biography of an innovator - one of the greatest ever known.

Reviews

'There are many other books which delve deeply and comprehensively into Galileo's life and works ... but Sharratt's volume is an excellent introduction to the man aptly known as the 'father of modern physics'.' Irish Astronomical Journal