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00:00I love you.
00:30There are two ways to view the stars as they really are
00:58And as we might wish them to be
01:01These are the Pleiades
01:03A group of young stars astronomers recognize
01:06As leaving their stellar nurseries of gas and dust
01:11And this is the Crab Nebula
01:16A stellar graveyard where gas and dust are being dispersed back into the interstellar medium
01:22Inside it is a dying pulsar
01:25Both the Pleiades and the Crab Nebula
01:30Are in a constellation that astrologers long ago named Taurus the Bull
01:35They imagined it to influence our daily lives
01:39Astronomers say that the planet Saturn is an immense globe of hydrogen and helium
01:49Encircled by a ring of snowballs 50,000 kilometers wide
01:55And that Jupiter's great red spot is a giant storm raging for perhaps a million years
02:02But the astrologers see the planets as affecting human character and fate
02:07Jupiter represents a regal bearing and a gentle disposition
02:11And Saturn, the gravedigger, fosters, they say, mistrust, suspicion, and evil
02:19To the astronomers, Mars is a place as real as the Earth
02:25A world awaiting exploration
02:28But the astrologers see Mars as a warrior
02:35The instigator of quarrels, violence, and destruction
02:38Astronomy and astrology were not always so distinct
02:48For most of human history, the one encompassed the other
02:52But there came a time when astronomy escaped from the confines of astrology
02:57The two traditions began to diverge
03:02In the life and mind of Johannes Kepler
03:05It was he who demystified the heavens by discovering
03:09That a physical force lay behind the motions of the planets
03:12He was the first astrophysicist
03:15And the last scientific astrologer
03:18The intellectual foundations of astrology were swept away 300 years ago
03:26And yet astrology is still taken seriously by a great many people
03:31Have you ever noticed how easy it is to find a magazine on astrology?
03:36Virtually every newspaper in America has a daily column on astrology
03:40Almost none of them have even a weekly column on astronomy
03:44People wear astrological pendants, check their horoscopes before leaving the house
03:49Even our language preserves an astrological consciousness
03:53For example, take the word disaster
03:55It comes from the Greek for bad star
03:59The Italians once believed that disease was caused by the influence of the stars
04:04It's the origin of our word influenza
04:07The zodiacal signs used by astrologers
04:12Even ornament this statue of Prometheus in New York City
04:17Prometheus who stole fire from the gods
04:21When the moon is in the south of the house
04:28And Jupiter aligns with Mars
04:34What is all this astrology business?
04:41Fundamentally, it's the contention that which constellations the planets are in
04:45At the moment of your birth profoundly influences your future
04:49A few thousand years ago
04:51The idea developed that the motions of the planets
04:55Determine the fates of kings, dynasties, empires
05:00Astrologers studied the motions of the planets
05:03And asked themselves what had happened last time
05:06That, say, Venus was rising in the constellation of the goat
05:10Maybe something similar would happen this time as well
05:13It was a subtle and risky business
05:16Astrologers became employed only by the state
05:21In many countries, it became a capital offense for anyone but the official astrologer
05:27To read the portents in the skies
05:29Why?
05:31Because a good way to overthrow a regime was to predict its downfall
05:35Chinese court astrologers who made inaccurate predictions were executed
05:40Others simply doctored the records so that afterwards they were in perfect conformity with events
05:46Astrology developed into a strange discipline
05:50A mixture of careful observations, mathematics and record keeping
05:54With fuzzy thinking and pious fraud
05:58Nevertheless, astrology survived and flourished
06:04Because it seems to lend a cosmic significance to the routine of our daily lives
06:10It pretends to satisfy our longing to feel personally connected with the universe
06:16Astrology suggests a dangerous fatalism
06:20If our lives are controlled by a set of traffic signals in the sky
06:24Why try to change anything?
06:33Here, look at this
06:34Here's two different newspapers published in the same city on the same day
06:38Let's see what they do about astrology
06:41Suppose you are a Libra that is born between September 23rd and October 22nd
06:47According to the astrologer for the New York Post
06:50Compromise will help ease tension
06:53Well, maybe it's sort of vague
06:56According to the New York Daily News' astrologer
07:00Demand more of yourself
07:02Well, also vague
07:03But also pretty different
07:05It's interesting that these predictions are not predictions
07:11They tell you what to do
07:12They don't say what's going to happen
07:13They're consciously designed to be so vague that it could apply to anybody
07:18And they disagree with each other
07:21Astrology can be tested by the lives of twins
07:25There are many real cases like this
07:27One twin is killed in childhood
07:29In, say, a riding accident
07:32Or is struck by lightning
07:33But the other lives to a prosperous old age
07:37Suppose that happened to me
07:40My twin and I would be born in precisely the same place
07:46And within minutes of each other
07:48Exactly the same planets would be rising at our births
07:52If astrology were valid
07:53How could we have such profoundly different fates?
07:57It turns out that astrologers can't even agree among themselves
08:02What a given horoscope means
08:04In careful tests, they're unable to predict the character and future
08:09Of people they know nothing else about
08:11Except the time and place of birth
08:13Also, how could it possibly work?
08:16How could the rising of Mars at the moment of my birth affect me?
08:20Then or now?
08:22I was born in a closed room
08:24Light from Mars couldn't get in
08:26The only influence of Mars which could affect me was its gravity
08:30But the gravitational influence of the obstetrician
08:33Was much larger than the gravitational influence of Mars
08:37Mars is a lot more massive
08:38But the obstetrician was a lot closer
08:41The desire to be connected with the cosmos
08:53Reflects a profound reality
08:55For we are connected
08:57Not in the trivial ways that the pseudoscience of astrology promises
09:01But in the deepest ways
09:03Our little planet
09:10Is under the influence of a star
09:13The sun warms us
09:16It drives the weather
09:17It sustains all living things
09:20Four billion years ago
09:22It brought forth life on Earth
09:25But our sun
09:27Is only one
09:28Of a billion
09:30Trillion stars
09:32Within the observable universe
09:34And those
09:36Countless suns
09:37All obey natural laws
09:39Some of which
09:40Are already known to us
09:42How did we discover
09:48That there are such laws?
09:51If we lived on a planet
09:53Where nothing ever changed
09:54There wouldn't be much to do
09:57There'd be nothing to figure out
09:59There'd be no impetus for science
10:01And if we lived in an unpredictable world
10:04Where things changed
10:05In random or very complex ways
10:08We wouldn't be able to figure things out
10:10And again
10:11There'd be no such thing as science
10:13But we live in an in-between universe
10:17Where things change alright
10:19But according to
10:21Patterns
10:22Rules
10:23Or as we call them
10:25Laws of nature
10:26If I
10:29Throw a stick up in the air
10:31It always falls down
10:34If the sun
10:36Sets in the west
10:37It always rises again
10:40The next morning
10:41In the east
10:42And so
10:43It's possible to figure things out
10:45We can do science
10:47And with it
10:48We can improve our lives
10:50Human beings are good
10:55At understanding the world
10:57We always have been
10:58We were able to hunt game
11:01Or build fires
11:03Only because we had
11:04Figured something out
11:06There once was a time
11:26Before television
11:28Before motion pictures
11:29Before radio
11:30Before books
11:31The greatest part of human existence
11:34Was spent in such a time
11:35And then
11:37Over the dying embers
11:40Of the campfire
11:41On a moonless night
11:44We watched
11:46The stars
11:47The night sky is
11:53Interesting
11:54There are patterns there
11:56If you look closely
11:57You can see pictures
11:59One of the easiest
12:04Constellations to recognize
12:05Lies in the northern skies
12:08Lies in the northern skies
12:08In North America
12:09It's called
12:10The Big Dipper
12:12The French have a similar idea
12:14They call it
12:15La casserole
12:16The casserole
12:17In medieval England
12:24The same pattern of stars
12:26Reminded people
12:27Of a simple
12:28Wooden plow
12:29The ancient Chinese
12:37The ancient Chinese
12:37Had a more sophisticated notion
12:39To them
12:40These stars carried
12:42The celestial bureaucrat
12:44On his rounds
12:45About the pole of the sky
12:46Seated on the clouds
12:48And accompanied
12:49By his eternally hopeful
12:51Petitioners
12:52The people of northern Europe
12:56Imagined yet another pattern
12:57To them
12:58It was Charles's
12:59Wayne
12:59Or wagon
13:01A medieval cart
13:02But other cultures
13:05Saw these seven stars
13:07As part of a larger picture
13:08It was the tail
13:09Of a great bear
13:11Which the ancient Greeks
13:12And Native Americans
13:13Saw instead of the handle
13:15Of a dipper
13:15But surely
13:17The most imaginative
13:18Interpretation
13:19Of this larger group
13:20Of stars
13:20Was that of the
13:21Ancient Egyptians
13:22They made out
13:23A curious procession
13:25Of a bull
13:25And a reclining man
13:26Followed by a strolling
13:28Hippopotamus
13:29With a crocodile
13:30On its back
13:31What a marvelous diversity
13:33In the images
13:33Various cultures
13:34Saw in this
13:35Particular constellation
13:37But the same is true
13:38For all the other constellations
13:40Some people think
13:43These things are really
13:44In the night sky
13:46But we put these pictures
13:48There ourselves
13:49We were hunter folk
13:51So we put hunters
13:53And dogs
13:54Lions
13:55And young women
13:55Up in the skies
13:57All manner of things
13:59Of interest to us
14:00When 17th century
14:03European sailors
14:04First saw the southern skies
14:06They put all sorts of things
14:08Of 17th century interest
14:09Up there
14:09Microscopes
14:11And telescopes
14:11Compasses
14:13And the sterns
14:14Of ships
14:15If the constellations
14:18Had been named
14:18In the 20th century
14:19I suppose we'd
14:20Put there
14:21Refrigerators
14:23And bicycles
14:24Rock stars
14:26Maybe even
14:27Mushroom clouds
14:28A new set
14:30Of human hopes
14:31And fears
14:32Placed among the stars
14:35But there's more
14:37To the stars
14:38Than just pictures
14:40For example
14:41Stars always rise
14:43In the east
14:44And always set
14:45In the west
14:46Taking the whole night
14:47To cross the sky
14:49If they pass overhead
14:50There are different
14:52Constellations
14:52In different seasons
14:54The same constellations
14:55The same constellations
14:56Always rise
14:57At say
14:58The beginning of autumn
14:59It never happens
15:00That a new constellation
15:01Suddenly appears
15:03Out of the east
15:03One that you never saw before
15:04There's a regularity
15:06A permanence
15:08A predictability
15:10About the stars
15:11In a way
15:12They're almost
15:14Comforting
15:15The return of the sun
15:29After a total eclipse
15:30Its rising in the morning
15:33After its troublesome absence
15:35At night
15:35And the reappearance
15:38Of the crescent moon
15:39After the new moon
15:40All spoke to our ancestors
15:42Of the possibility
15:44Of surviving death
15:45Up there in the skies
15:47Was a metaphor
15:48Of immortality
15:50Almost a thousand years ago
15:53In the American southwest
15:55The Anasazi people
15:56Built a stone temple
15:57An astronomical observatory
15:59To mark the longest day
16:01Of the year
16:01Dawn on that day
16:04Must have been
16:05A joyous occasion
16:06A celebration
16:07Of the generosity
16:09Of the sun
16:10They built this
16:26Ceremonial calendar
16:27So that the sun's rays
16:28Would penetrate a window
16:30And enter a particular niche
16:33On this day
16:35Alone
16:36That kind of precision
16:42Is a triumph
16:43Of human intelligence
16:44It outlives its creators
16:46Today
16:47This is a lonely place
16:49The Anasazi people
16:50Are no more
16:51They had learned
16:53To predict the changing
16:53Of the seasons
16:54They could not predict
16:56The changing of the climate
16:57And the failure of the rains
16:59But their temple
17:00Continues to catch
17:01The sun's first rays
17:03On the summer solstice
17:04I imagine
17:10The Anasazi people
17:12Gathered in these pews
17:15Every June 21st
17:16Dressed with
17:17Feathers and turquoise
17:19To celebrate
17:21The power of the sun
17:22These
17:24Upper niches
17:25There are
17:2628 of them
17:28May represent
17:29The number of days
17:30For the moon
17:31To reappear
17:32In the same constellation
17:33These people
17:35Paid a lot of attention
17:36To the sun
17:38And the moon
17:39And the stars
17:40And other devices
17:41Based on
17:42Somewhat similar designs
17:44Can be found
17:45In Anger Wat
17:46In Cambodia
17:47Stonehenge
17:48In England
17:49Abu Simbel
17:50In Egypt
17:51Chichen Itza
17:53In Mexico
17:53And in the Great Plains
17:55Of North America
17:56Now
17:57Why
17:58Did people
17:59All over the world
18:00Go to such great trouble
18:02To teach themselves
18:03Astronomy
18:04It was
18:09It was
18:09Literally
18:10A matter of life and death
18:12To be able to
18:13Predict
18:14The seasons
18:15We
18:16Hunted antelope
18:18Or
18:18Buffalo
18:19Whose migrations
18:20Ebbed
18:21And flowed
18:23With the seasons
18:24Fruits and nuts
18:26Were
18:26Ready to be picked
18:27And
18:28Sometimes
18:29And
18:29Not in others
18:30When we invented agriculture
18:32We had to take care
18:33And
18:33Sow our seeds
18:35And harvest our crops
18:36At just the right season
18:37Annual meetings
18:39Of far-flung
18:40Nomadic peoples
18:42Were set for prescribed times
18:44Now
18:46Some
18:47Alleged
18:48Calendrical devices
18:49Might be due to chance
18:50For example
18:51The
18:51Accidental alignment
18:54Of a window
18:54And a niche
18:56But
18:57There are other devices
18:58Wonderfully different
19:00Today
19:11Only the dry ruins
19:12Of the great Anasazi cities
19:14Have survived
19:15The ravages
19:16Of time
19:16Not far from these ancient cities
19:21In an almost
19:22Inaccessible location
19:24There is another
19:25Salstice marker
19:26This one
19:27Of singular
19:28And unmistakable purpose
19:30The deliberate arrangement
19:32Of three great stone slabs
19:34Allows a sliver of sunlight
19:36To pierce the heart
19:38Of a carved spiral
19:39Only at noon
19:41On the longest day of the year
19:43The wind whips through the canyons
19:53Here in the American southwest
19:54And there's no one to hear it
19:56But us
19:57A reminder of the 40,000 generations
20:01Of thinking men and women
20:03Who preceded us
20:04About whom we know
20:06Next to nothing
20:08Upon whom
20:09Our society
20:11Is based
20:12When our prehistoric ancestors
20:28Studied the sky
20:29After sunset
20:30They observed
20:32They observed
20:32That some of the stars
20:33Were not fixed
20:35With respect
20:35To the constant pattern
20:36Of the constellations
20:38Instead
20:39Five of them moved
20:41Slowly forward
20:43Across the sky
20:44Then backward
20:45For a few months
20:46Then forward again
20:48As if they couldn't quite
20:49Make up their minds
20:50We call them
20:51Planets
20:52The Greek word
20:54For wanderers
20:55These planets
20:56Presented a profound mystery
20:58The earliest explanation
20:59Was that they were
21:00Living beings
21:01How else explain
21:03Their strange
21:04Looping behavior
21:06Later
21:07They were thought
21:07To be gods
21:08And then
21:09Disembodied
21:11Astrological influences
21:12But the real solution
21:16To this particular mystery
21:17Is that the planets
21:19Are worlds
21:20That the earth
21:21Is one of them
21:21And that they all
21:22Go around the sun
21:23According to precise
21:24Mathematical laws
21:25This discovery
21:27Has led directly
21:28To our modern
21:29Global civilization
21:31The merging
21:34Of imagination
21:35With observation
21:35Produced an exact
21:37Description
21:37Of the solar system
21:39Only then
21:40Could you answer
21:40The fundamental question
21:42The one at the root
21:43Of modern science
21:44What makes it all go
21:46Two thousand years ago
21:48No such question
21:49Would even have been asked
21:50The prevailing view
21:52Had then been formulated
21:53By Claudius Ptolemy
21:54An Alexandrian astronomer
21:56And also the preeminent
21:57Astrologer
21:58Of his time
21:59Ptolemy believed
22:04That the earth
22:05Was at the center
22:06Of the universe
22:06That the sun
22:07And the moon
22:08And the planets
22:09Like mars
22:10Went around the earth
22:12It's the most natural idea
22:14In the world
22:14The earth seems
22:15Steady
22:16Solid
22:17Immobile
22:17While we can see
22:19The heavenly body
22:20Is rising
22:20And setting
22:21Every day
22:22But then
22:23How explain
22:24The loop
22:25The loop
22:26Motion
22:26Of the planets
22:27In the sky
22:27Mars for example
22:28This little machine
22:30Shows
22:31Ptolemy's model
22:32The planets
22:34Were imagined
22:34To go around
22:35The earth
22:36Attached to perfect
22:37Crystal spheres
22:38But not attached
22:39Directly to the spheres
22:40But indirectly
22:42Through a kind of
22:42Off center wheel
22:43The sphere turns
22:50The little wheel rotates
22:51And a scene
22:52From the earth
22:53Mars does its
22:54Loop the loop
22:55This model
23:05Permitted
23:05Reasonably accurate
23:06Predictions
23:07Of planetary motion
23:08Where a planet
23:09Would be
23:09On a given day
23:10Certainly
23:11Good enough
23:11Predictions
23:12For the precision
23:13Of measurement
23:13In Ptolemy's time
23:14And much later
23:16Supported
23:19By the church
23:20Through the dark ages
23:21Ptolemy's model
23:22Effectively prevented
23:24The advance of astronomy
23:25For 1500 years
23:26Finally
23:28In 1543
23:30A quite different
23:30Explanation
23:31Of the apparent
23:32Motion of the planets
23:33Was published
23:34By a Polish cleric
23:36Named Nicholas
23:37Copernicus
23:38Its most daring
23:41Feature
23:41Was the proposition
23:42That the sun
23:43Not the earth
23:43Was at the center
23:44Of the universe
23:45The earth
23:45Was demoted
23:46To just one
23:47Of the planets
23:48The retrograde
23:49Or loop the loop
23:50Motion
23:51Happens as the earth
23:52Overtakes mars
23:53In its orbit
23:54You can see
23:55That from the standpoint
23:57Of the earth
23:58Mars is now
24:00Going slightly
24:00Backwards
24:01And now
24:02It is going
24:03In its original
24:04Direction
24:05This Copernican
24:07Model worked
24:07At least as well
24:08As Ptolemy's
24:09Crystal spheres
24:10But it annoyed
24:12An awful lot
24:13Of people
24:13The Catholic Church
24:15Later put
24:16Copernicus's work
24:17On its list
24:18Of forbidden books
24:20And Martin Luther
24:22Described Copernicus
24:23In these words
24:24He said
24:24People give ear
24:26To an upstart
24:27Astrologer
24:28This fool
24:30Wishes to reverse
24:32The entire science
24:34Of astronomy
24:34Close quote
24:36The confrontation
24:38Between the two
24:40Views of the cosmos
24:42Earth centered
24:43And sun centered
24:44Reached its climax
24:46With a man
24:46Who like Ptolemy
24:48Was both an astronomer
24:49And an astrologer
24:50He lived in a time
24:58When the human spirit
25:00Was fettered
25:01And the mind
25:02Chained
25:03When angels
25:04And demons
25:05And crystal spheres
25:06Were imagined
25:07Up there in the skies
25:08Science still lacked
25:10The slightest notion
25:11Of physical laws
25:12Underlying nature
25:14But the brave
25:15And lonely struggle
25:16Of this man
25:17Was to provide
25:18The spark
25:19That ignited
25:20The modern
25:20Scientific revolution
25:21Johannes Kepler
25:25Was born in Germany
25:26In 1571
25:27He was sent
25:29To the protestant
25:29Seminary school
25:30In the provincial town
25:31Of Malbron
25:32To be educated
25:33For the clergy
25:34It was a strict
25:39Disciplined life
25:40Up before dawn
25:42To begin a long day
25:43Of prayer and study
25:44This was the age
25:52Of the reformation
25:53Malbron was a kind
25:55Of educational
25:57And ideological
25:58Bootcamp
25:59Training young
25:59Protestants
26:00In the use
26:01Of theological
26:01Weaponry
26:02Against the fortress
26:03Of Roman Catholicism
26:05There was little
26:16Reassurance
26:17Or comfort here
26:18For a sensitive
26:19Boy like Kepler
26:20He was intelligent
26:22And he knew it
26:23That together
26:25With his stubbornness
26:26And his fierce
26:27Independence
26:28Served to isolate
26:29Him from the other
26:30Boys
26:31Kepler made few
26:32Friends in his
26:33Two years at
26:34Malbron
26:34So he kept
26:39To himself
26:40Withdrawn into the
26:41World of his
26:42Own thoughts
26:43Which were often
26:44Concerned with his
26:45Imagined unworthiness
26:46In the eyes of God
26:47He despaired of
26:49Ever attaining salvation
26:50But God to him
27:00Was more than
27:01Punishment
27:02God was also
27:04The creative power
27:06Of the universe
27:07And the young
27:09Kepler's
27:09Curiosity about God
27:11Was even greater
27:12Than his fear
27:13He wanted to know
27:15God's plan
27:17For the world
27:17He wanted to read
27:19The mind of God
27:21This was his
27:24Obsession
27:25It was to inspire
27:27All his great
27:28Achievements
27:28It was to take him
27:30And Europe
27:32Out of the cloister
27:33Of medieval thought
27:35In places like
27:44Malbron
27:45The faint echoes
27:46Of the genius
27:47Of antiquity
27:48Still reverberated
27:49Here
27:51In addition to
27:52Theology
27:52Kepler was exposed
27:54To Greek
27:55And Latin
27:55Music
27:56And mathematics
27:58And it was in
28:00Geometry
28:00That he thought
28:01He glimpsed
28:01The image of perfection
28:03He was later
28:17To write
28:18Geometry existed
28:20Before the creation
28:21It is co-eternal
28:24With the mind
28:25Of God
28:25Geometry
28:27Provided God
28:28With a model
28:29For the creation
28:30Geometry
28:32Is God
28:35Himself
28:35But the real world
28:48Of Kepler's time
28:49Was far from perfect
28:51It was haunted
28:52By fear
28:53Pestilence
28:54Famine
28:54And war
28:55Superstition
28:56Was a natural refuge
28:58For people
28:58Who were powerless
28:59Only one thing
29:00Seemed certain
29:01The stars themselves
29:03It was remembered
29:04That in ancient times
29:05The astrologer
29:06Ptolemy
29:06And the sage
29:08Pythagoras
29:09Had taught
29:10That the heavens
29:10Were harmonious
29:11And changeless
29:12And Ptolemy
29:17And Ptolemy
29:17Had said
29:17That the motions
29:18Of the planets
29:19Through the stars
29:19Of the zodiac
29:20Were portents
29:21Of events
29:22Here below
29:23Was it the influence
29:27Of Mars and Venus
29:28That made his father
29:29A brutal man
29:29A mercenary
29:30Who had abandoned him
29:31Did an unfortunate
29:38Conjunction
29:39Of planets
29:39In an adverse sign
29:41Make his mother
29:41A mischievous
29:42And quarrelsome woman
29:43If such things
29:49Were faded
29:50By the stars
29:51Then perhaps
29:52There were hidden
29:52Patterns
29:53Underlying
29:54The unpredictable
29:55Chaos
29:55Of daily life
29:56Patterns
30:12As constant
30:13As the stars
30:14But how could you
30:25Discover them
30:26Where would you begin
30:27If the world
30:29And everything in it
30:30Was crafted by God
30:31Then shouldn't you begin
30:33With a careful study
30:34Of physical reality
30:35Was not all of creation
30:37An expression
30:38Of the harmonies
30:39In the mind of God
30:40The book of nature
30:42Had waited
30:43Fifteen hundred years
30:44For a reader
30:56In fifteen eighty nine
31:04Kepler left
31:05Malbrunn
31:06To continue his studies
31:07At the great university
31:09In Tübingen
31:10It was a liberation
31:14To find himself
31:15Amidst the most vital
31:16Intellectual currents
31:17Of the time
31:18One of his teachers
31:19Revealed to him
31:20The revolutionary ideas
31:22Of Copernicus
31:23Kepler relished
31:26This urbane
31:27Scholarly community
31:29Here
31:31His genius
31:32Was recognized
31:33At last
31:34Kepler
31:38Was not to be ordained
31:44After Tübingen
31:44Instead
31:45To his great surprise
31:47He found himself
31:48Summoned to Graz
31:49In Austria
31:50To become a teacher
31:51Of high school mathematics
31:52Kepler
31:55Was not a very good teacher
31:57The first year
32:00In Graz's mathematics class
32:01Had only a handful
32:02Of students
32:03The second year
32:04None
32:05He mumbled
32:08He digressed
32:09He was at times
32:11Utterly incomprehensible
32:13He was distracted
32:17By an incessant
32:18Clamor
32:18Of speculations
32:19And associations
32:20That ran
32:21Through his head
32:22And one pleasant
32:30Summer afternoon
32:31With his students
32:32Longing for the end
32:33Of the lecture
32:34He was visited
32:35By a revelation
32:36That was to alter
32:37Radically the future
32:38Course of astronomy
32:39And the world
32:41There were only
32:48Six planets
32:48Known in his time
32:49Mercury
32:50Venus
32:51Earth
32:51Mars
32:51Jupiter
32:52And Saturn
32:52For some time
32:54Kepler had been wondering
32:55Why only six planets
32:58Why not 20 planets
33:00Or a hundred
33:01And why this particular
33:03Spacing between their orbits
33:05No one had ever asked
33:07Such questions before
33:08In the course
33:10Of a lecture on astrology
33:11Kepler inscribed
33:13Within the circle
33:14Of the zodiac
33:15A triangle
33:15With three equal sides
33:17He then noticed
33:19Quite by accident
33:20That a smaller circle
33:22Inscribed within the triangle
33:24Bore the same relationship
33:26To the outer circle
33:27As did the orbit of Jupiter
33:29To the orbit of Saturn
33:31Could a similar geometry
33:34Relate the orbits
33:34Of the other planets
33:35Now Kepler remembered
33:37The perfect solids
33:38Of Pythagoras
33:39Of all the possible
33:41Three-dimensional shapes
33:42There were five
33:43And only five
33:44Whose sides
33:44Were regular polygons
33:46He believed
33:50That the two numbers
33:51Were connected
33:52That the reason
33:53There were only six planets
33:54Was that there were
33:55Only five regular solids
33:57In these perfect solids
33:59Nested one within the other
34:02He believed
34:03He had discovered
34:03The invisible supports
34:05For the spheres
34:06Of the six planets
34:08And this connection
34:14Between geometry
34:15And astronomy
34:15Could he thought
34:16Admit only one explanation
34:19The hand
34:20Of God
34:21Mathematician
34:38The intense pleasure
34:40I received from this discovery
34:42Can never be told in words
34:44He said
34:45Now I no longer
34:47Became weary at work
34:48Days and nights
34:49I passed
34:50In mathematical labors
34:52Until I could see
34:53Whether my hypothesis
34:54Would agree
34:54With the orbits of Copernicus
34:56Or if my joy
34:58Would vanish
34:59Into thin air
35:00But no matter
35:07How hard he tried
35:08The perfect solids
35:10And the planetary orbits
35:11Did not agree
35:12With each other very well
35:13Why didn't it work
35:17Because unfortunately
35:18It was wrong
35:19The true orbital sizes
35:21Of the planets
35:22We now know
35:23Have absolutely nothing
35:24To do
35:25With the five perfect solids
35:26As the later discovery
35:28Of Uranus
35:28Neptune
35:29And Pluto
35:29Shows
35:30But Kepler
35:31Spent the rest of his life
35:33Pursuing this
35:35Geometrical
35:36Phantasm
35:37He couldn't abandon it
35:39And he couldn't
35:41Make it work
35:41His frustration
35:43Must have been enormous
35:44Finally
35:45He decided
35:47That it must be
35:47The long accepted
35:48Planetary observations
35:49That were inaccurate
35:50And not his model
35:51Of the nested solids
35:53There was only one man
35:56In the world
35:56Who had access
35:57To more precise observations
35:58That man
35:59Was Tycho Brahe
36:01Who as chance
36:03Would have it
36:03Had recently written
36:04Kepler to come
36:05And join him
36:06Kepler was reluctant
36:08At first
36:09But he had no choice
36:10In 1598
36:16A wave of oppression
36:18Enveloped Kraths
36:19It was spearheaded
36:21By the local archduke
36:22Who vowed to restore
36:24The catholic faith
36:25To the province
36:25And in his own words
36:28Would rather
36:29Make a desert
36:30Of the country
36:31Than rule over heretics
36:33Kepler's school
36:47Was closed
36:48People were forbidden
36:49To worship
36:50Or to sing hymns
36:52Or to own books
36:53Of a heretical nature
36:55Those who refused
36:57To embrace catholicism
36:58Were fined
36:5910% of their assets
37:00And exiled
37:02From the country
37:02On pain of death
37:03Kepler chose exile
37:07Hypocrisy
37:12I have never learned
37:15I am in earnest
37:16About faith
37:17I do not play with it
37:33For Kepler
37:35It was only the first
37:36In a series of exiles
37:38Forced upon him
37:39By religious fanatics
37:40Now he decided
37:48To accept
37:48Tycho Brahe's
37:49Open invitation
37:50Brahe
37:52A wealthy
37:53Danish nobleman
37:54Lived in great splendor
37:56And had recently
37:56Been appointed
37:57Imperial mathematician
37:58At Prague
37:59Kepler left
38:01Graz
38:02With his wife
38:03And stepdaughter
38:04And set out
38:05And set out
38:05On the difficult journey
38:06Kepler's wife
38:08Was not a happy woman
38:10She was chronically ill
38:12And had recently
38:13Lost two young children
38:14The marriage itself
38:16Was no comfort
38:16She had no understanding
38:18Of her husband's work
38:19And regarded his profession
38:20With contempt
38:21Kepler was married
38:32To his work
38:33And every tedious mile
38:35Was bringing him closer
38:37To the great
38:38Tycho Brahe
38:39Whose observations
38:40He devoutly hoped
38:42Would confirm
38:43His theory
38:44Kepler envisioned
38:46Tycho's domain
38:47As a sanctuary
38:48From the evils
38:49Of the time
38:50He aspired
38:51To be a worthy
38:52Colleague
38:52To the illustrious
38:53Tycho
38:53Who for 35 years
38:55Had been immersed
38:56In exact measurements
38:57Of a clockwork universe
38:59Ordered
39:00And precise
39:01But Tycho's court
39:14Was not at all
39:16What Kepler had expected
39:17Tycho himself
39:23Tycho himself
39:23Was a flamboyant figure
39:25Adorned
39:26With a gold nose
39:28The original
39:29Had been lost
39:29In a student duel
39:30Fought over
39:31Who is the superior
39:32Mathematician
39:33And he maintained
39:35A circus-like entourage
39:36Of assistants
39:38Distant relatives
39:39And assorted
39:40Hangers-on
39:41Kepler had no use
39:53For the endless revelry
39:55He was impatient
39:56To see Tycho's data
39:57But Tycho would give him
39:59Only a few scraps
40:00At a time
40:01Tycho, he said
40:05Gave me no opportunity
40:07To share in his studies
40:08He would only
40:09In the course of a meal
40:11And in between other matters
40:12Mention
40:13As if in passing
40:14Today the figure
40:15Of the apogee
40:16Of one planet
40:17Tomorrow
40:18The nose
40:19Of another
40:20Kepler was ill-suited
40:24For such gains
40:25And the general
40:26Climate of intrigue
40:28Offended his sense
40:29Of propriety
40:29Their cruel mockery
40:39Of the pious
40:39And scholarly
40:40Kepler
40:41Depressed
40:42And saddened him
40:43My opinion
40:48Of Tycho
40:49Is this
40:50He's
40:51Superlatively rich
40:53But knows not
40:54How to make
40:55Proper use of it
40:56Tycho possesses
40:58The best observations
40:58He also has collaborators
41:01He lacks only
41:03The architect
41:04Who would put
41:05All this
41:05To use
41:06Tycho was unable
41:20To turn his observations
41:21Into a coherent theory
41:23Of the solar system
41:24He knew he needed
41:26The brilliant
41:27Kepler's help
41:28But simply to hand over
41:31His life's work
41:32To a potential rival
41:33That was
41:34Unthinkable
41:35Tycho was the greatest
41:48Observational genius
41:49Of the age
41:49And Kepler
41:50The greatest theoretician
41:51Either man alone
41:54Could not achieve
41:55The synthesis
41:56Which both felt
41:57Was now possible
41:57The birth of modern science
42:05Which is the fusion
42:07Of observation and theory
42:08Teetered on the precipice
42:11Of their mutual distrust
42:13The two repeatedly quarreled
42:28The two repeatedly quarreled
42:33And were reconciled
42:35Until a few months later
42:38Tycho died of his habitual
42:41Overindulgence
42:42Overindulgence
42:42In food
42:44And wine
42:45Kepler wrote to a friend
42:49On the last night
42:52Of Tycho's gentle delirium
42:54He repeated
42:55Over and over again
42:57These words
42:58Like someone composing a poem
43:00Let me not seem
43:02Let me not seem
43:03To have lived in vain
43:04Let me not seem
43:07To have lived in vain
43:08And he did not
43:15Eventually
43:19Eventually
43:19After Tycho's death
43:20Kepler contrived
43:22To extract
43:23The observations
43:24From Tycho's
43:26Reluctant family
43:27Observations
43:28Of the
43:29Apparent motion
43:31Of Mars
43:32Through the constellations
43:33Obtained over
43:34A period of
43:35Many years
43:37The data
43:38From the last
43:40Few decades
43:41Before the invention
43:42Of the telescope
43:43Were by far
43:44The most precise
43:45Ever obtained
43:46Up to that time
43:47Kepler worked
43:52With a kind of
43:53Passionate intensity
43:55To understand
43:56Tycho's observations
43:57What real motions
44:00Of the Earth
44:02And Mars
44:03About the sun
44:05Could explain
44:06To the precision
44:07Of measurement
44:07The apparent motion
44:09As seen from the Earth
44:10Of Mars in the sky
44:12And why Mars
44:14Because Tycho had
44:15Told Kepler
44:16That the apparent
44:17Motion of Mars
44:18Was the most difficult
44:19To reconcile
44:20With a circular orbit
44:21After years
44:23Of calculation
44:24He believed
44:25That he had found
44:26The correct values
44:27For a Martian
44:28Circular orbit
44:29Which matched
44:30Ten of Tycho Brahe's
44:32Observations
44:32Within two minutes
44:34Of arc
44:35Now there are
44:36Sixty minutes of arc
44:37In an angular degree
44:39And of course
44:40Ninety degrees
44:42From horizon
44:43To zenith
44:45So a few minutes
44:46Of arc
44:47Is a very small
44:48Quantity to measure
44:48Especially without
44:50A telescope
44:50But Kepler's
44:52Ecstasy of discovery
44:53Soon crumbled
44:55Into gloom
44:56Because two
44:57Further observations
44:58By Tycho
44:59Were inconsistent
45:00With his orbit
45:01By as much as
45:03Eight minutes
45:03Of arc
45:04Kepler wrote
45:06If I had believed
45:08That we could ignore
45:09These eight minutes
45:09I would have patched up
45:11My hypothesis accordingly
45:12But since it was not
45:14Permissible to ignore them
45:15Those eight minutes
45:16Pointed the road
45:17To a complete
45:18Reformation
45:19Of astronomy
45:20The difference
45:22Between a circular orbit
45:24And a true orbit
45:25Of Mars
45:26Could be distinguished
45:27Only
45:28By precise measurement
45:29And by a courageous
45:31Acceptance
45:32Of the facts
45:33Kepler was profoundly
45:35Annoyed at having
45:36To abandon
45:37A circular orbit
45:38It shook his faith
45:40In God
45:42As the maker
45:43Of a perfect
45:44Celestial geometry
45:46Having cleaned
45:49The stable
45:49Of astronomy
45:50Of circles
45:51And spirals
45:52He said
45:52He was left
45:54With only a single
45:56Cartful
45:57Of dung
45:59He tried various
46:01Oval-like curves
46:02Calculated away
46:03Made some
46:04Arithmetical mistakes
46:05Which caused him
46:07In fact to reject
46:08The correct answer
46:08And months later
46:11In some desperation
46:13Tried the formula
46:15For the first time
46:15For an ellipse
46:17The ellipse
46:18Matched the observations
46:20Of Tycho
46:20Beautifully
46:21In such an orbit
46:24The sun is not
46:25At the center
46:26But is
46:27Offset
46:28It's at one
46:29Focus
46:30Of the ellipse
46:31When a given planet
46:32Is at the far point
46:34In its orbit
46:34From the sun
46:35It goes more slowly
46:36As it approaches
46:37The near point
46:38It speeds up
46:40Such motion
46:41Is why we describe
46:42The planets
46:42As forever
46:44Falling towards
46:45The sun
46:45But never reaching it
46:47Kepler's first law
46:49Of planetary motion
46:50Is simply this
46:51A planet moves
46:53In an ellipse
46:54With the sun
46:55At one focus
46:57As the planet
47:01Moves along its orbit
47:02It sweeps out
47:03In a given period
47:04Of time
47:05An imaginary
47:06Wedge-shaped area
47:07When the planet
47:09Is far from the sun
47:10The area is long
47:10And thin
47:11When the planet
47:12Is close to the sun
47:13The area is short
47:14And squat
47:15Although the shapes
47:16Of these wedges
47:17Are different
47:18Kepler found
47:19That their areas
47:20Are exactly the same
47:21This provided
47:23A precise mathematical
47:25Description
47:25Of how a planet
47:26Changes its speed
47:27In relation to
47:28Its distance
47:28From the sun
47:29Now
47:30For the first time
47:32Astronomers
47:33Could predict
47:33Exactly where a planet
47:34Would be
47:35In accordance with
47:36A simple
47:36And invariable law
47:38Kepler's second law
47:39Is this
47:40A planet
47:42Sweeps out
47:42Equal areas
47:43In equal times
47:45Kepler's first
47:47Two laws
47:48Of planetary motion
47:49May seem a little
47:50Remote and abstract
47:52All right
47:53Planets move
47:54In ellipses
47:55And they sweep out
47:56Equal areas
47:57In equal times
47:57So what?
48:00It's not as easy
48:01To grasp
48:01As circular motion
48:03We might have
48:04A tendency
48:04To dismiss it
48:06To say it's
48:06A mere
48:07Mathematical
48:08Tinkering
48:09Something
48:10Removed
48:11From everyday life
48:12But these
48:14Are the laws
48:15Our planet
48:16Itself obeys
48:17As we
48:19Glued by gravity
48:20To the surface
48:21Of the earth
48:21Hurtle through space
48:23We move
48:24In accord
48:25With laws of nature
48:26Which Kepler
48:27First discovered
48:28When we send
48:30Spacecraft
48:31To the planets
48:31When we observe
48:33Double stars
48:33When we examine
48:35The motion
48:36Of distant galaxies
48:37We find
48:38That all over
48:39The universe
48:40Kepler's laws
48:41Are obeyed
48:42Many years later
48:44Kepler came upon
48:46His third
48:47And last law
48:48Of planetary motion
48:49A law which
48:51Relates the motion
48:52Of the various planets
48:53To each other
48:53Which lays out
48:55Correctly
48:55The clockwork
48:57Of the solar system
48:58He discovered
49:02A simple mathematical
49:02Relationship
49:03Between the size
49:04Of a planet's orbit
49:05And the average speed
49:07At which it travels
49:07Around the sun
49:08This confirmed
49:10His long-held belief
49:11That there must be
49:12A force in the sun
49:13That drives the planets
49:15A force stronger
49:16For the inner
49:17Fast-moving planets
49:18And weaker
49:19For the outer
49:19Slow-moving planets
49:20Isaac Newton
49:22Later identified
49:23That force
49:24As gravity
49:25Answering at last
49:27The fundamental question
49:28What makes
49:29The planets go
49:30Kepler's third
49:34Or harmonic law
49:35States that the squares
49:36Of the periods
49:37Of the planets
49:38The time for them
49:40To make one orbit
49:41Are proportional
49:42To the cubes
49:43The third power
49:44Of their average
49:46Distances from the sun
49:47So the further away
49:49A planet is from the sun
49:50The slower it moves
49:52But according to
49:53A precise mathematical law
49:55Kepler was the first person
49:58In the history
49:58Of the human species
49:59To understand correctly
50:01And quantitatively
50:03How the planets move
50:05How the solar system works
50:07The man who sought
50:21Harmony in the cosmos
50:23Was fated to live
50:25At a time of exceptional
50:26Discord on Earth
50:27Exactly eight days
50:30After Kepler's discovery
50:31Of his third law
50:32There occurred in Prague
50:34An incident that unleashed
50:36The devastating
50:36Thirty years war
50:38The war's convulsions
50:40Shattered the lives
50:42Of millions of people
50:43Kepler lost his wife
50:46And young son
50:47To an epidemic
50:48Spread by the soldiery
50:50His royal patron
50:51Was deposed
50:52And he was excommunicated
50:54From the Lutheran church
50:55For his uncompromising independence
50:58On questions of belief
50:59He was a refugee
51:01Once again
51:02The conflict
51:05Portrayed on both sides
51:07As a holy war
51:09Was more an exploitation
51:11Of religious bigotry
51:12By those hungry
51:13For land
51:14And power
51:15This war
51:24Introduced organized pillage
51:27To keep armies
51:28In the field
51:29The brutalized population
51:34Of Europe
51:35Stood by helpless
51:36As their plowshares
51:37And pruning hooks
51:39Were literally beaten
51:40Into swords
51:42And spears
51:43Rumor and paranoia
51:45Swept through the countryside
51:47Enveloping especially
51:49The powerless
51:50Among the many
51:52Scapegoats chosen
51:53Were elderly women
51:55Living alone
51:55Who were charged
51:57With witchcraft
51:57Kepler's mother
52:09Was taken away
52:11In the middle of the night
52:12In a laundry chest
52:14It took Kepler
52:17Six years
52:19Of unremitting effort
52:20To save her life
52:22In Kepler's little hometown
52:27About three women
52:29Were arrested
52:30Tortured
52:31And killed
52:32As witches
52:33Every year
52:34Between 1615
52:36And 1629
52:37And Katerina Kepler
52:39Was a cantankerous
52:41Old woman
52:41She engaged in disputes
52:43Which annoyed
52:44The local nobility
52:45And she sold drugs
52:47Poor Kepler
52:49Thought that he himself
52:51Had contributed
52:52Inadvertently
52:53To his mother's arrest
52:55It came about
52:57Because he had written
52:58One of the first works
52:59Of science fiction
53:00It was intended
53:01To explain
53:02And popularize science
53:04And was called
53:05The Somnium
53:06The Dream
53:08He imagined a journey
53:20To the moon
53:21With the space travelers
53:23Standing on the lunar surface
53:25Looking up to sea
53:27Rotating slowly above them
53:29The lovely planet
53:31Griff
53:32Part of the basis
53:35For the charge of witchcraft
53:37Was that in his dream
53:39Kepler used his mother's spells
53:41To leave the earth
53:42But he really believed
53:44That one day
53:45Human beings
53:46Would launch
53:46Celestial ships
53:48With sails adapted
53:50To the breezes of heaven
53:51Filled with explorers
53:54Who he said
53:54Would not fear
53:56The vastness of space
53:57He speculated
54:00On the mountains
54:01Valleys
54:02Craters
54:03Climate
54:04And possible inhabitants
54:06Of the moon
54:07Before Kepler
54:09Astronomy had
54:11Little connection
54:12With physical reality
54:13But with Kepler
54:16Came the idea
54:17That a physical force
54:18Moves the planets
54:20In their orbits
54:21He was the first
54:24To combine
54:25A bold imagination
54:26With precise measurements
54:28To step out
54:30Into the cosmos
54:31It changed
54:33Everything
54:34This fusion
55:02Of facts
55:03With dreams
55:04Opened the way
55:05To the stars
55:06As a boy
55:12Kepler had been
55:14Captured
55:15By a vision
55:16Of cosmic splendor
55:17A harmony
55:19Of the worlds
55:19Which he sought
55:20So tirelessly
55:21All his life
55:22Harmony in this world
55:24Eluded him
55:25His three laws
55:27Of planetary motion
55:28Represent
55:29We now know
55:30A real harmony
55:32Of the worlds
55:32But to Kepler
55:34They were only
55:35Incidental
55:36To his quest
55:37For a cosmic system
55:38Based on the perfect solids
55:40A system which
55:41It turns out
55:42Existed only in his mind
55:44Yet
55:45From his work
55:47We have found
55:48That scientific laws
55:50Pervade all of nature
55:51That the same rules
55:53Apply on earth
55:54As in the skies
55:55That we can find
55:56A resonance
55:57A harmony
55:59Between the way
56:00We think
56:01And the way
56:02The world works
56:03When he found
56:07That his long
56:08Cherished beliefs
56:09Did not agree
56:09With the most
56:10Precise observations
56:11He accepted
56:13The uncomfortable facts
56:14He preferred
56:16The hard truth
56:17To his
56:19Dearest illusions
56:20That is the heart
56:23Of science
56:23That is the heart
56:35Of science
56:36Of science
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