Copernican Columbus? Columbus, for all the criticism of the past few weeks, deserves his place in history

Article Abstract:

Many people unjustly denounced Christopher Columbus on the 500th anniversary of his first landfall in the New World. Columbus's detractors object to his mercenary behavior and blame him for the long-term results of his voyage such as the decimation of native American peoples. However, these critics are wrong to fault Columbus for not knowing the future and overlook that Columbus's achievement was a bona fide discovery for 15th-century Europe. Moreover, Columbus's use of new techniques for determining longitude may have caused him to anticipate Copernicus's evidence for the heliocentric model.

Editorial, Evaluation, Western Hemisphere, Discoveries (in geography), Columbus, Christopher (Italian explorer)

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Copernican revolution declared

Article Abstract:

Crystals and quasicrystals can be combined into one taxonomy by shifting the point of view to symmetry in reciprocal space and thereby focusing on diffraction phenomena instead of on the atoms' positions. David Mermin and his fellow researchers at Cornell University used this approach to overturn the basic formulation of symmetry theory in crystallography. The research resulted from communication between solid-state physicists and crystallographers and shows the need for comparing the ideas of different scientific disciplines.

Models, Crystallography, Symmetry

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Implications of the Copernican principle for our future prospects

Article Abstract:

Copernican principles say that man does not occupy a special place in the universe because there are few special places and it is likely that man lives in one of the many non special spaces. This theory helps in calculating longevity, in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and in space travel. The colonization of galaxies is possible, but only a limited part will develop intellient life. A radio search for life in our Galaxy may be successful though its scope is limited.

Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, Outer space, Space exploration, Copernicus, Nicolaus

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