Ved en ceremoni i Brussel har professor Brian F.C. Clark,
Molekylærbiologisk Institut, Aarhus Universitet, modtaget den prestigefylde Nicolas Copernicus medalje.
Medaljen, der
uddeles hvert år af det polske videnskabelige akademi (The Polish Academy of Sciences), blev tildelt Brian Clark for hans enestående
resultater inden for nukleinsyrers molekylærbiologi samt som en
værdsættelse af hans værdifulde samarbejde med forskere i Polen. Læs mere om
Brian Clark på http://www.mbio.au.dk/~clark/
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Professor
Brian Clark (tv) modtager Nicolas Copernicus medaljen af præsidenten for det polske videnskabelige akademi professor Andrzej B. Legocki |
Biografi: Nicolas
Copernicus (1473-1543)
Copernicus is said to be the founder of modern astronomy.
He was born in Torun, Poland. His father was a
Germanized Slav, his mother a German; and Poland and Germany both claim the honour of producing him. He was eventually sent off to Cracow University, there to study mathematics and optics;
at Bologna, canon law. Returning from his studies in Italy, Copernicus, through
the influence of his uncle, was appointed as a canon in the cathedral of Frauenburg where he spent a sheltered and academic life for
the rest of his days. Because of his clerical position, Copernicus moved in the
highest circles of power; but a student he remained. For relaxation Copernicus
painted and translated Greek poetry into Latin. His interest in astronomy
gradually grew to be one in which he had a primary interest. His investigations
were carried on quietly and alone, without help or consultation. He made his
celestial observations from a turret situated on the protective wall around the
cathedral, observations were made ”bare eyeball,” so to speak, as a hundred
more years were to pass before the invention of the telescope. In 1530,
Copernicus completed and gave to the world his great work De Revolutionibus, which asserted that the earth rotated on
its axis once daily and traveled around the sun once yearly: a fantastic
concept for the times. Up to the time of Copernicus the thinkers of the western
world believed in the Ptolemiac theory that the
universe was a closed space bounded by a spherical envelope beyond which there
was nothing. Claudius Ptolemy, an Egyptian living in Alexandria, at about 150
A.D., gathered and organized the thoughts of the earlier thinkers. (It is to be
noted that one of the ancient Greek astronomers, Aristarchus,
did have ideas similar to those more fully developed by Copernicus but they
were rejected in favour of the geocentric or
earth-centered scheme as was espoused by Aristotle.) Ptolemy’s findings were
that the earth was a fixed, inert, immovable mass, located at the center of the
universe, and all celestial bodies, including the sun and the fixed stars,
revolved around it. It was a theory that appealed to human nature. It fit with
the casual observations that a person might want to make in the field; and
second, it fed man’s ego.
Copernicus was in no hurry to publish his theory, though
parts of his work were circulated among a few of the astronomers that were
giving the matter some thought; indeed, Copernicus’ work might not have ever
reached the printing press if it had not been for a young man who sought out
the master in 1539. George Rheticus was a 25 year old
German mathematics professor who was attracted to the 66 year old cleric,
having read one of his papers. Intending to spend a few weeks with Copernicus, Rheticus ended up staying as a house guest for two years,
so fascinated was he with Copernicus and his theories. Now, up to this time,
Copernicus was reluctant to publish, -- not so much that he was concerned with
what the church might say about his novel theory (De Revolutionibus was placed on the Index in 1616 and only removed in 1835), but rather because
he was a perfectionist and he never thought, even after working on it for
thirty years, that his complete work was ready, -- there were, as far as
Copernicus was concerned, observations to be checked and rechecked.
(Interestingly, Copernicus’ original manuscript, lost to
the world for 300 years, was located in Prague in the middle of the 19th
century; it shows Copernicus’ pen was, it would appear, continually in motion
with revision after revision; all in Latin as was the vogue for scholarly
writings in those days.)
Copernicus died in 1543 and was never to know what a stir
his work had caused. It went against the philosophical and religious beliefs
that had been held during the medieval times. Man, it was believed (and still
believed by some) was made by God in His image, man was the next thing to God,
and, as such, superior, especially in his best part, his soul, to all
creatures, indeed this part was not even part of the natural world (a
philosophy which has proved disastrous to the earth’s environment as any casual
observer of the 20th century might confirm by simply looking about).
Copernicus’ theories might well lead men to think that they are simply part of
nature and not superior to it and that ran counter to the theories of the
politically powerful churchmen of the time.
Two other Italian scientists of the time, Galileo and
Bruno, embraced the Copernican theory unreservedly and as a result suffered
much personal injury at the hands of the powerful church inquisitors. Giordano
Bruno had the audacity to even go beyond Copernicus, and, dared to suggest,
that space was boundless and that the sun was and its planets were but one of
any number of similar systems: Why! -- there even
might be other inhabited worlds with rational beings equal or possibly superior
to ourselves. For such blasphemy, Bruno was tried before the Inquisition,
condemned and burned at the stake in 1600. Galileo was brought forward in 1633,
and, there, in front of his ”betters,” he was, under
the threat of torture and death, forced to his knees to renounce all belief in
Copernican theories, and was thereafter sentenced to imprisonment for the
remainder of his days.
The most important aspect of Copernicus’ work is that it
forever changed the place of man in the cosmos; no longer could man
legitimately think his significance greater than his fellow creatures; with
Copernicus’ work, man could now take his place among that which exists all
about him, and not of necessity take that premier position which had been
assigned immodestly to him by the theologians.
”Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have exerted a
greater effect on the human spirit than the doctrine of Copernicus. The world
had scarcely become known as round and complete in itself when it was asked to
waive the tremendous privilege of being the center of the universe. Never,
perhaps, was a greater demand made on mankind - for by this admission so many
things vanished in mist and smoke! What became of our Eden, our world of
innocence, piety and poetry; the testimony of the senses; the conviction of a
poetic - religious faith? No wonder his contemporaries did not wish to let all
this go and offered every possible resistance to a doctrine which in its
converts authorized and demanded a freedom of view and greatness of thought so
far unknown, indeed not even dreamed of.” [Johann Goethe.]
http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Science/Copernicus.htm
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