"Kepler on Trial: The Dark Side of a Brilliant Mind"
This talk
is the story of the stormy collaboration between two
revolutionary astronomers, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Kepler was
one of
the greatest astronomers of all time. Yet if it hadn't been for the now
lesser
known Tycho Brahe, the man for whom Kepler apprenticed, Kepler would be
a mere
footnote in today's science books. Brahe’s forty years of planetary
observations - an unparalleled treasure of empirical data - contained
the key
to Kepler's historic breakthrough. But those observations would become
available to Kepler only after Brahe's death. Based on recent forensic
evidence
and original research into medieval and Renaissance alchemy -- all
buttressed
by in-depth interviews with leading historians, scientists, and medical
specialists -- the speakers have put together evidence that Tycho Brahe
did not
die of natural causes, as has been believed for four hundred years. He
was
systematically poisoned -- most likely by his assistant, Johannes
Kepler.