Astro Star

Knowledge works top when we pitch out the old way of teaching one topic at a time all detached from each other plus bring different ideas and disciplines together. For instance, you can’t under- stand the American Civil War by simply studying dates and battles, and ignoring geography, literature, economics, or religion. You can’t understand the Bible without a grasp of archaeology, ancient Near Eastern civilizations, anthropology, and literature. And you can’t truly understand or appreciate astronomy and the physics of space without understanding mythology, religion, ancient history, and the history of ideas. It is one thing to know that an astrolabe is a medieval device that was used to compute the location of stars. Another to discover that the same Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote The Canterbury Tales once wrote how-to guide for constructing an astrolabe. It is a plain and simple fact that Galileo and Einstein both introduced ideas that changed our perceptions of the universe, as well as the course of history. But it is something else to discover that both of these pioneering thinkers had daughters born out of wedlock. Galileo’s was sent to a convent and corresponded with her father. The fate of Einstein’s daughter is some- thing of a mystery. These aren’t simply gossipy titbits meant to sully their reputations; instead, I hope, it shows both of these men as human beings, which makes their accomplishments all the more remarkable.