Galileo at Work
His Scientific Biography
Stillman Drake spent his career on Galileo, and this is his fullest account: a biography organised around the work itself, reconstructed from the notebooks, the correspondence with scientists across Europe, and the sequence of experiments: the inclined plane, the pendulum, the timing of falling bodies by weighing water. Drake reads the working papers closely enough to date discoveries the published books obscure, and gives a picture of Galileo as a practising experimenter rather than a symbol.
Recommended by 1 Person
Dava Sobel
Yes, this book really examines Galileo's day-to-day life. It looks at what kind of correspondence he maintained with scientists all over Europe. It also shows what his thinking was on various problems. It is a close-up look at how he performed his experiments and how he worked with others to shape his ideas.
Interview · April 2012
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