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Progress happens with every death (mander.xyz)

submitted 3 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] confluence@lemmy.world 25 points 3 months ago

Modern astrophysics exists because a house fell on a teenage orphan.

Who as a result got adopted by a prince.

He got access to a royal lab for glassmaking.

Then he tried fixing color aberration in his microscope lenses.

Then he noticed the rainbow had holes in it. Huh.

Then he died. Glassmaking and tuberculosis are fast friends.

Then Bunsen invented his burner, which made spectra that matched the rainbow holes. Huh.

Now we know what stars and planetary atmospheres are made of!

[-] chaogomu@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

Fun fact, When Newton was first working on his book Opticks in the 1670s to 1704, he had a lab with prisms, magnifying glasses, and telescopes. He never once used the telescope or magnifying glass to look at the spectrum produced by the prisms he was playing with.

But his work was published and available, which let others learn and grow the field.

Newton also sort of coined the word Spectrum, or at least stole it and put it to better use.