GALILEO

What This Book Covers

1. Prologue
2. Chapter One - The Son of a Lute Player
3. Chapter Two - The Math That Wasn’t Theology
4. Chapter Three - The Pendulum’s Swing
5. Chapter Four - Venice, Optics, and Opportunism
6. Chapter Five - The Telescope Arrives
7. Chapter Six - Moons of Jupiter, Cracks in Heaven
8. Chapter Seven - The Milky Way Is Not a Mist
9. Chapter Eight - The Sun Has Blemishes
10. Chapter Nine - Copernicus Reignited
11. Chapter Ten - Dialogues and Dagger Smiles
12. Chapter Eleven - Science vs Power
13. Chapter Twelve - House Arrest for Truth
14. Chapter Thirteen - The Mind of a Rebel Physicist
15. Chapter Fourteen - The Catholic Church Blinks (Eventually)
16. Chapter Fifteen - Galileo and the Eye of God

Excerpt

PROLOGUE IN 1633, GALILEO Galilei stood before the Roman Inquisition and denied what he knew to be true. He had written in support of heliocentrism, the idea that the Earth moves around the Sun. The Church declared the idea heretical if treated as literal truth. He was ordered to recant or face punishment. Under pressure, Galileo agreed. He signed the confession and accepted a sentence of house arrest for the rest of his life. According to legend, as he rose from the courtroom, he muttered a final phrase under his breath: “E pur si muove.” “And yet it moves.” Whether he said it or not doesn’t change the outcome. The world moved anyway. It kept moving, with or without permission. Galileo...