Quote:
Originally Posted by itisbomb
Galileo's Daughter
by Dava Sobel
is today's Kindle Daily Deal. It can be downloaded for $1.99.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...d_i=1000677541
Below is the blurb:
Inspired by a long fascination with Galileo, and by the remarkable surviving letters of Galileo's daughter, a cloistered nun, Dava Sobel has writtenhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B002N1AEY6/ref=sr_1_1_olp?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1401075153&sr=1-1&keywords=urasawa+monster&condition=used a biography unlike any other of the man Albert Einstein called "the father of modern physics- indeed of modern science altogether." Galileo's Daughter also presents a stunning portrait of a person hitherto lost to history, described by her father as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me." Galileo's Daughter dramatically recolors the personality and accomplishment of a mythic figure whose seventeenth-century clash with Catholic doctrine continues to define the schism between science and religion. Moving between Galileo's grand public life and Maria Celeste's sequestered world, Sobel illuminates the Florence of the Medicis and the papal court in Rome during the pivotal era when humanity's perception of its place in the cosmos was about to be overturned. In that same time, while the bubonic plague wreaked its terrible devastation and the Thirty Years' War tipped fortunes across Europe, one man sought to reconcile the Heaven he revered as a good Catholic with the heavens he revealed through his telescope. With all the human drama and scientific adventure that distinguished Dava Sobel's previous book Longitude, Galileo's Daughter is an unforgettable story
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Okay, it is no longer at the low price of $1.99, but after reading the hard-copy version of this book, I can say it is a most interesting and engaging read. It appears well-researched, and the book is written in such a way that it will prove to be a useful reference for students writing research papers.
If all you know about Galileo is the little you may half-remember from high-school, then you may be surprised to learn how much this man accomplished in his lifetime.