Tycho Brahe, the scandalous astronomer - Dan Wenkel

507,940 views ・ 2014-06-12

TED-Ed


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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How do you imagine the life of a scientist?
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Boring and monotonous,
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spending endless hours in the lab
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with no social interaction?
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Maybe for some but not Tycho Brahe.
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The 16th century scholar who accurately predicted planetary motion
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and cataloged hundreds of stars before the telescope had been invented
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also had a cosmic-sized personal life.
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Tycho Brahe was born in 1546 to Danish nobles,
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but at age two was kidnapped to be raised by his uncle instead.
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His parents didn't seem to mind.
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Tycho was supposed to have a career in law,
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but after witnessing a solar eclipse at thirteen,
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he began spending more time
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with mathematics and science professors,
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who taught him the art of celestial observation.
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By the time Tycho's uncle sent him off to Germany a few years later,
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he had lost interest in his law studies,
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instead reading astronomy books,
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improving his instruments,
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and taking careful notes of the night skies.
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It wasn't long before his own measurements
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were more accurate than those in his books.
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While in Germany, Tycho got into a bit of an argument
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with another student at a party
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over a mathematical formula,
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resulting in a sword duel
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and Tycho losing a good-sized chunk of his nose.
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After that, he was said to have worn
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a realistic prosthetic of gold and silver
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that he would glue onto his face.
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Fortunately, Tycho didn't need his nose
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to continue his astronomical work.
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He kept studying the night sky
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and creating all sorts of instruments,
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including a building-sized quadrant for measuring
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the angles of stars.
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After months of careful observation,
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Tycho discovered a new star
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in the constellation Cassiopeia.
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The publication of this discovery granted him rock star status
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and offers of scientific positions all over Europe.
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Wanting to keep him at home,
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the King of Denmark offered to give Tycho
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his own personal island with a state of the art observatory.
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Called Uraniborg and costing about 1% of Denmark's entire budget,
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this observatory was more of a castle,
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containing formal gardens,
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rooms for family, staff and visiting royalty,
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and an underground section just for all the giant instruments.
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Tycho also built a papermill and printing press
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for publishing his papers,
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and a lab for studying alchemy.
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And since no castle would be complete
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without entertainment,
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Tycho employed a clairvoyant dwarf
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named Jep as court jester.
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Tycho lived on his island,
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studying and partying for about 20 years.
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But after falling out with the new Danish King,
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he took up an invitation from the Holy Roman Emperor
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to become the official imperial astronomer in Prague.
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There, he met another famous astronomer Johannes Kepler,
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who became his assistant.
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While Kepler's work interested him,
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Tycho was protective of his data,
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and the two often got into heated arguments.
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In 1601, Tycho attended a formal banquet
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where he drank quite a lot
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but was too polite to leave the table to relieve himself,
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deciding to tough it out instead.
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This proved to be a bad idea,
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as he quickly developed a bladder infection
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and died a few days later.
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But over 400 years after his death,
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Tycho still had a few surprises up his sleeve.
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When his body was exhumed and studied in 2010,
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the legendary gold and silver nose
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was nowhere to be found,
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with chemical traces suggesting
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that he wore a more casual brass nose instead.
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Tycho's mustache hair was also found
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to contain unusually high levels of toxic mercury.
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Was it from a medicine used to treat his bladder infection?
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A residue from his alchemy experiments?
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Or did his quarrelsome coworker Johannes Kepler
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poison him to acquire his data?
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We may never know,
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but the next time you think scientists lead boring lives,
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dig a little deeper.
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A fascinating story may be just beyond the tip of your nose.
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