Nicolaus Copernicus: Making the Earth a Planet (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780195161731)

Born in Poland in 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus launched a quiet revolution. No scientist so radically transformed our understanding of our place in the universe as this curious bishop's doctor and church official. In his quest to discover a beautiful and coherent system to describe the motions of the planets, Copernicus placed the sun in the center of the system and made the earth a planet traveling around the sun. Today it is hard to imagine our solar system any other way, but for his time Copernicus's idea was earthshaking. In 1616 the church banned his book Revolutions because it contradicted the accepted notion that God placed Earth in the center of the universe. Even though those who knew of his work considered his idea dangerous, Revolutions remained of interest only to other scientists for many years. It took almost two hundred years for his concept of a sun-centered system to reach the general public. None the less, what Copernicus set out in his remarkable text truly revolutionized science. For this, Copernicus, a quiet doctor who made a tremendous leap of imagination, is considered the father of the Scientific Revolution.

Oxford Portraits in Science is an on-going series of scientific biographies for young adults. Written by top scholars and writers, each biography examines the personality of its subject as well as the thought process leading to his or her discoveries. These illustrated biographies combine accessible technical information with compelling personal stories to portray the scientists whose work has shaped our understanding of the natural world.

Author: Owen Gingerich, James MacLachlan
ISBN-10: 0195161734
ISBN-13: 9780195161731
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 06/16/2005
Pages: 128
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.84lbs
Size: 9.54h x 6.38w x 0.52d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 12/01/2005 pg. 58
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2006 pg. 171 - Below Average, With Minor Flaw
School Library Journal 06/01/2006 pg. 176