Friday, February 15, 2008

Inspiring Lives-17: Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei, an Italian mathematician, physicist, astronomer and philosopher and a Towering Figure in the World of Modern Science, was born on this day, February 15, in the year 1564.

He has been acclaimed as the ‘Father of Modern Science’, ‘Father of Modern Physics’ and ‘Father of Astronomy’. His contributions for the advancement of science have been immense and very remarkable.

His "scientific investigations greatly enhanced humanity's knowledge of the universe.... his work is today considered crucial to the development of the modern scientific method" (http://www.refdesk.com/)

He was persecuted for supporting the views of Copernicus and spent his last years under house arrest. He died at the age of 78.

Wikipedia furnishes a more detailed account of His Life like Works, Pictures, References for Further Study, Links etc:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei

Friday, February 1, 2008

In the News-3: "A Golden Moment"

Jnanpith winning Malayalam writer, M.T.Vasudevan Nair, received a special honour recently. The Kerala Sahitya Akademi organized a grand four-day literary festival in Thrissur to celebrate the golden jubilee of his novel Nalukettu, published in 1958. The novel deals with the disintegration of the Nair joint families. Malayalam’s living literary pantheon was present in full strength at the festival to sing paeans to writer who is tipped to be the next Central Sahitya Akademi president.

Courtesy: ‘Indiana’, The Week, February 3, 2008