Age you gotta explain...

[Greg Berge]

Bohemian, not German!!!!   ::twitch::  (I know, he was born in Weil der Stadt, but he was an ethnic Bohemian and I'm claiming him as a proto-Czech, like Mendel.)

http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/family/kepler.html

[Anne 85]

Sorry, Greg.  The Kepler page doesn't give Johann's nationality, and the dictionary says he was German.  I also wasn't clear about astronomer vs physicist....

[The Greatest Man Alive]

Let me tell you, the Greeks, we arent what all the stereotypes make us out to be. I was a terrible CS major, and a greasy greasy man. Now I work in Texas. Proof positive you can break the mold.

Aristidis Tsouprous, the greatest man alive

[CowbellGuy]

Yup, what Ben said. By the way, Ben, I didn't answer the phone when you called because I was in the middle of said lecture.

[Greg Berge]

70% astronomer to 30% astrologer.  One of the many reasons why he's interesting -- one foot in the medieval period and one foot in the scientific age, at a time when they bled into each other.

Plus his mom was a witch.  That's always a plus.

[rhovorka]

Tycho Brahe had a brass nose and died when his bladder exploded.
Although now it is believed that he actually died of mercury poisoning.
He lost his nose in a duel that was caused by an argument over a mathematical formula.

[Greg Berge]

Yep, the story goes he had to pee but refused to excuse himself from the table before his host left.

In all other respects he was supposedly a consumate s.o.b., so for him of all people to die of good manners has to go down as one of the top ten ironic deaths of all time.

Brahe was also given his own island as a reward from a wealthy patron, and used to have week-long drinking/eating/various-other-fun-and-games sessions there, making him the only scientist in world history to hold his own orgies.  Unless you count Franklin.

Kepler -- who was incredibly straight-laced and prudish -- apparently hated him, but without Brahe's meticulous observations he probably never would have been able to formulate his laws of planetary motion.

[Josh '99]

Rich Hovorka '96 wrote:

Tycho Brahe had a brass nose and died when his bladder exploded.
Although now it is believed that he actually died of mercury poisoning.
He lost his nose in a duel that was caused by an argument over a mathematical formula.

Was that what you wrote about Brahe in your GRE essay?   ::twitch::

[jtwcornell91]

As I understand it, Tycho's death was also an important development in Astronomy, since it meant Kepler got to see all of the data which he had been jealously guarding.

[Scersk]

Hmmm...  I wonder if we've all watched Sagan's Cosmos...

Just a wild guess...

[Greg Berge]

"I have an S.U.V."

"Sleeeepy time...."

[Roy 82]

Hmmm...  I wonder if we've all watched Sagan's Cosmos...

Just a wild guess...

Are you saying that Sagan was poisoned? Radiation induced cancer. The perfect crime.

[KeithK]

Hmmm...  I wonder if we've all watched Sagan's Cosmos...

Just a wild guess...

Are you saying that Sagan was poisoned? Radiation induced cancer. The perfect crime.

Roy, you necromancer...