Sublime

Aristarchus of Samos, who lived approximately from 310 to 230 B.C., and was thus about twenty-five years older than Archimedes, is the most interesting of all ancient astronomers, because he advanced the complete Copernican hypothesis, that all the planets, including the earth, revolve in circles round the sun, and that the earth rotates on its axi

The birth of science and the birth of democracy, therefore, have a common foundation: the discovery of the usefulness of criticism and dialogue among equals.

science is not a collection of truths, but ‘a continuing exploration of mysteries’.

At its best, science roams all unknown waters, with ethics at its helm and sails spread with the processive value of coming to know rather than the possessive value of owning the known.

When it completed its mission at the fringes of our solar system, Sagan came up with the idea of turning its cameras around and pointing them at Earth to take one final image. The now-iconic photo, known as the Pale Blue Dot, depicts Earth as a tiny pixel—a barely perceptible “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam,” in Sagan’s memorable words.17 We t