Difficult to summarize the article in question, since it starts of with scientific artifacts then slides over into considerations and other thoughts, but it's fun with good wow! factor. Here is one of my favorite parts:
In fact this book, published in 1543, was the revolution. It was here that the Polish astronomer [Copernicus] laid out his theory that the Earth and other planets go around the Sun, contravening a millennium of church dogma that the Earth was the center of the universe and launching a frenzy of free thought and scientific inquiry.Mmm, the lovely days when saying that the Earth goes around the Sun was enough to have you burned at the stake!
The party, known as the Enlightenment, is still going strong.
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... Galileo, who was tried for heresy in 1633 and sentenced to house arrest for his admiration of Copernicus...