Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473- May 24, 1543) was a gift to humanity, in terms of our ever-widening understanding of our universe, and how the world works. Copernicus was born on this day in 1473 in Torun, a city in north-central Poland on the Vistula River. He lived his life in what was then Royal Prussia. This was an autonomous state, but it was ruled by the Polish king dating back to 1466, a few years before Copernicus was born.
He was an exceptional Polish astronomer, mathematician and philosopher. Also, he was a physician, polyglot, a a politician (numerous titles), a scholar of classical antiquity, translator, and even an economist, although he did not earn or possess a degree in all of these fields. Nevertheless, Copernicus developed an economic theory of quantity in 1517, two years before it became popularized by Thomas Gresham in what is now known as Gresham's Law (which effectively can be summed up as "bad money drives out good money").
While Copernicus was obviously a man of many talents, he is most famous for his theory of heliocentrism, where he formulated the heliocentric model of our solar system, famously (and dangerously) suggesting that the planets - including the Earth - revolve around the Sun. This marked a massive departure from the previously prevailing geocentric viewpoint, which had the Earth as the center of the universe.
His most famous work was "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres). It was published posthumously in 1543, underscoring the dangerous nature of his findings. This was the work in which he presented his heliocentric theory. He suggested that the Earth rotates on its axis and orbits the Sun, offering mathematical calculations and other observations which served as solid proof.
Nevertheless, Copernicus's work initially received skepticism. Perhaps people just were not ready to challenge what had been the accepted wisdom of the time before these findings by Copernicus.
In time, however, the work of Copernicus championing a heliocentric model of the solar system began to be more accepted and even admired over time. In fact, perhaps ironically, it took as a central role in a scientific revolution which advanced our knowledge and understanding of the world and the solar system, even the universe.
Today, I wanted to take some time to honor the memory of Copernicus, and his now legendary work.
From the World Science Festival a few years ago:
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