GALILEO

A fresh biography of the great astronomer and scientist.

Galileo was an Italian astronomer, physicist, mathematician, inventor, and philosopher whose discoveries were revolutionary for his time but advanced the scientific knowledge of our planet. He established his "Principle of Inertia" after mathematically describing the force of friction as it relates to motion. In the fields of optics and astronomy, he discovered four of Jupiter's largest moons, phases of Venus and sunspots, and confirmed that the planets rotate around the sun, not the Earth.

It was this finding that angered the Pope and he was put on trial by the Inquisition in Rome. He was found suspect of heresy and forced to say that all of his findings were wrong. He was first imprisoned, and later confined to his house near Florence. During the last ten years of Galileo's life, the Church monitored his travel and communications with others, and his writings were censored and placed in the Index of Prohibited Books. Galileo continued to write about physics, and in 1632 he put forward his concept of Basic Relativity in physics. This fundamental concept later formed the basis for Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.

Mario Livio, a distinguished astrophysicist, is the author of several bestselling books (Brilliant Blunders, God is a Mathematician, The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved, and The Golden Ratio. In this astute biography, he recounts the life and discoveries of Galileo, and examines the faith versus science debate that tried to destroy Galileo's findings.