links for 2009-02-20

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The "Phylogeny" of Scientific Life.
OK, PZ, Grrlscientist, and John have
Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed :: Early (Encouraging) Data on Early Colleges
Stopping atoms A "coil-gun" method for slowing atomic beams without lasers, from the Raizen group at Texas

Yes, more people should know what Galileo did.

Oddly, the reason I remember one of the key dates associated with Galileo is because in one of my German classes as an undergraduate we read Bertolt Brecht's Leben des Galilei (Life of Galileo). In that play, a narrator introduces each scene with a couplet. The couplet I remember:

Sechszehn hundert zehn, zehnte Januar
Galileo Galilei sah, daß kein Himmel war

Rough translation: On 10 January 1610 Galileo Galilei saw that there was no heaven.
That was the date on which he realized that Jupiter had satellites.

By Eric Lund (not verified) on 20 Feb 2009 #permalink