Podcasts Government On The Record Galileo and the Science Deniers

Galileo and the Science Deniers

Published: July 27, 2020, 8:02 p.m.

Four hundred years ago, after Galileo heard rumors that lenses in a tube could bring the planets and the surface of the moon into focus, he made detailed observations with a telescope and laid the groundwork for the scientific method. He also brought on himself the wrath of the greatest power in Europe, the Catholic Church, which called his analysis heretical. In a new biography, Galileo and the Science Deniers, astrophysicist Mario Livio compares Galileo’s critics to those who today deny climate change ... or the science behind the coronavirus.