Tackling Galileo as astronomer, engineer, and author, David Wootton places him at the center of Renaissance culture. He traces Galileo through his early rebellious years; the beginnings of his scientific career constructing a "new physics"; his move to Florence seeking money, status, and greater freedom to attack intellectual orthodoxies; his trial for heresy and narrow escape from torture; and his house arrest and physical (though not intellectual)...

"A biography of the great astronomer and scientist, and an examination of the faith vs. science question, then and now, written by a noted astrophysicist and author"--

"Like Michelangelo, Galileo is another Renaissance great known just by his first name--a name that is synonymous with scientific achievement. Born in Pisa, Italy, in the sixteenth century, Galileo contributed to the era's great rebirth of knowledge. He invented a telescope to observe the heavens. From there, not even the sky was the limit! He turned long-held notions about the universe topsy turvy with his support of a sun-centric solar system. Patricia...

Discusses the life and discoveries of Galileo, the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century mathematician, physicist, and astronomer who challenged ideas more than a thousand years old and changed the course of science.

"Galileo's scientific method was of overwhelming significance for the development of modern physics, and led to a final parting of the ways between science and philosophy." "In a startling reinterpretation of the evidence, Stillman Drake advances the hypothesis that Galileo's trial and condemnation by the Inquisition in 1633 was caused not by his defiance of the Church, but by the hostility of contemporary philosophers." "Galileo's own beautifully...

A biography of mathematician, physicist, and astronomer Galileo, from his early years to his confrontations with the church, his last years, and his legacy.