"How Galileo and the Telescope Changed Everything"
Dava Sobel, author and science writer

Monday, June 2, 2008
8:00 - 9:30 pm
St. Louis Convention Center

Dava Sobel Photo by Libi Pedder.

The U.N. has designated 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning his telescope to the skies and revolutionizing humanity's view of its place in the universe. Dava Sobel, the best-selling science writer and former reporter for The New York Times, will discuss Galileo's background, explore the artistic and musical skills that he brought to his scientific work, and show how his development of the telescope changed the course of his life and set a new direction for the science of astronomy.

Dava Sobel is an award-winning science writer, who is the author of such books as Is Anyone Out There? (with Frank Drake), Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, Letters to Father, and The Planets. She has written about science for such magazines as Audubon, Discover, and The New Yorker. In 2006, she was the Robert Vare Nonfiction Writer-in-Residence at the University of Chicago. She received the 2001 Public Service Award of the National Science Board for fostering public awareness of science. Galileo's Daughter was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography in 2000. Two episodes of the PBS series NOVA have been based on her books and she is currently at work on a stage play about Copernicus.

This special lecture is open to everyone, whether attending the conference of the two Societies or not. The lecture is part of the Second Century Lecture Series, celebrating the centennial of the American Astronomical Society with a series of public talks around the country.