Galileo Galilei—considered the father of modern science—was once president of the Academy of Lynxes and used the name Galileo Galilei Linceo on the title pages of his works in its honor.

Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter’s moons led to multiple scientific advancements

Beyond challenging Earth-centric views upon their discovery in 1610, the Galilean moons were also later analyzed to contribute to early astrometry and astronomical interferometry. Measurements of eclipses were also used to estimate the speed of light.

The Academy of Lynxes was co-founded by an 18-year-old whose father suspected he was associating with sorcerers and magicians.

Georges Lemaître, a Belgian Catholic priest who proposed the Big Bang theory in 1931, became president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1960.

The Pius XI Medal—named after the pope who reestablished the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936—has been awarded every two years to a promising scientist under 45.

Watch a video overview of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which advises the pope on science, from one of its Nobel Prize-winning members.

The Lucasian Chair is among the most prestigious academic positions in science

Once held by icons like Newton, Dirac, and Hawking, the position was founded in 1663. "Star Trek" imagined the Lucasian Chair’s future holder as the android Data, cementing its mythos across scientific and science fiction realms.

The scientific name for northern lights came from two Greco-Roman gods

Although cave paintings may have depicted them millennia earlier, one of the oldest known references to auroras is a Babylonian cuneiform tablet from about 600 BCE. In 1619, Galileo Galilei named the phenomenon in the northern hemisphere "aurora borealis" after the Roman goddess of dawn—Aurora—and the Greek god of the north wind—Boreas.

Meet Hipparchus, the Greek astronomer who created the world's first star map

Astronomer Hipparchus created accurate maps of the night sky way ahead of his time, with coordinates sometimes within a single degree of modern values. Hipparchus founded a new theory of star motion, modeling the sky as a celestial sphere with coordinates similar to latitude and longitude—concepts only recently created in Hipparchus' time.

Ancient Greek told to kick rocks after claiming moon wasn't a deity

About 2,500 years ago, ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras theorized that the moon probably wasn't a goddess. This article explains how this belief led to his exile. Anaxagoras also argued the sun was just a burning rock, writing that it was the sun that illuminated the moon. According to this resource, this theory enabled Anaxagoras to accurately explain eclipses and lunar cycles.

View historical records of solar observations and discoveries, from telescopes in the early 1600s revealing sunspots to NASA's Parker Solar Probe photographing the sun from within its outer corona in 2025.

How a solar eclipse proved Einstein's theory of gravity

For hundreds of years, Isaac Newton's laws of gravity and motion accurately predicted every observation and measurement involving orbits. With the advance of technology, more precise measurements revealed anomalies, including the orbit of Mercury, which Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity could explain. This article details the two frameworks and how they went head-to-head during an eclipse for gravitational supremacy.

Socrates is considered by many the father of Western philosophy

We know Socrates mostly through the writings of Plato, one of his admirers. Plato's dialogues typically feature Socrates as the main speaker. His penetrating look at life's most important subjects—from the nature of justice and knowledge to the existence of gods—made him many enemies, and even led to his execution.

Credit for inventing the laser was fought over for nearly three decades

Although Theodore Maiman built the first working laser in 1960, Gordon Gould coined the term earlier. Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow of Bell Labs filed a patent after Gould came up with the idea and name, but before Gould filed his patent.

The 'Celestial Police' accidentally discovered asteroids while planet hunting

The group was formed in 1800 to find a planet some astronomers believed existed between Mars and Jupiter. Prior to their disbanding in 1815, the group instead discovered Vesta, Juno, and other objects they would call asteroids.

Scientists used to speculate about life on the moon

In the 17th century, Galileo's observations suggested the moon could be inhabited, leading to fictional speculations about lunar life. In the 19th century, stories were published claiming the discovery of various creatures, including human bats. The Apollo missions in the 20th century explored the possibility of life there, but further exploration showed this idea to be less likely than before.

The ancient Greeks and Romans viewed comets and meteors as divine omens

Both considered the appearance of a comet or its fragments as a precursor to significant events, such as the birth of a notable figure or the death of a ruler. One observed in 44 BCE was believed to be a sign of the deification of Julius Caesar after his assassination.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward Larson explores the Scopes Monkey Trial

The 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial was referred to as the "Trial of the Century" at the time, and has been since viewed as one of the origins of modern culture wars. A symbolic clash between science and religion during a period of rapid cultural change, the case became a flashpoint of differing ideologies.

The ancient Roman origins of the leap year

The earth's orbit around the sun takes about 365.2422 days, leaving farmer almanacs the awful job of pretending the calendar year fits into a whole number. This article explores the modern origins of the civil solar calendar and its leap year. The Julian calendar, named after the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, cut the calendar year into 365.25 days, gifting the public an extra day every four years. Learn more of the history here.

Halley's comet is named after the astronomer who predicted its next appearance

Edmund Halley realized that historical accounts of a celestial object passing in the night sky in 1531 and 1607 referred to the same object he observed in 1682. By applying Newtonian mechanics to his observational data, he calculated its orbit and accurately predicted its return in 1758.

William Blake may be best known as a poet, but he was also a painter

The author of "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" was a romantic poet and painter. "Newton," one of his better-known pieces, satirizes Isaac Newton, whom he saw as too concerned with the empiricism of science and, as a result, lacking an understanding of nature.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin discovered stars are mostly made of hydrogen and helium

At 25, her doctoral thesis challenged the then-common belief that stars were composed similarly to Earth. Several years later, Henry Norris Russell, who had initially dismissed her findings, independently made the same discovery and received credit for it.

Raphael's 'School of Athens' visually contrasts the views of Plato and Aristotle

As part of a commission from Pope Julius II to decorate his private library (and while Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel), Raphael created four frescoes representing different branches of knowledge: theology, philosophy, law, and poetry. "The School of Athens" depicted philosophy, staging classic thinkers Plato and Aristotle alongside others from intellectual history.

During his 'miraculous year,' Einstein published four groundbreaking papers

The 1905 "annus mirabilis" papers explained the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, the absolutism of the speed of light, and mass-energy equivalence, revolutionizing scientists' understandings of space, time, mass, and energy. For the discovery of the photoelectric effect, Einstein won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Sun Ra, a free jazz legend, claimed he was an angel

Sun Ra is one of jazz's most storied cult acts, with a career that spans multiple decades, dozens of hard-to-find self-released albums, and a sound that challenged even the most adventurous listeners. Ra, born Herman Blount, claimed to be from Saturn and once told an interviewer that "Star Wars" was "very accurate."

The word 'influenza' comes from a 15th-century Italian belief in the stars

In Renaissance Italy, epidemics were thought to result from the influence of natural disasters or celestial bodies. The illness was named "influenza", meaning “influence” in Italian.

How upheavals in accepted scientific theories helped popularize the term 'paradigm'

When Thomas Kuhn published "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" in 1962, he described the history of science as comprising periods of "normal science" where these accepted frameworks—paradigms—gradually accumulate anomalies until they cannot describe nature. Revolutionary science, such as the development of a new theory, results in a paradigm shift, another term Kuhn helped popularize. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Aristophanes was put on trial for his satire

The ancient Greek’s 426 BCE play “The Babylonians” criticized Athens’ role in the Peloponnesian War. The politician Cleon accused the dramatist of being unpatriotic, but that didn’t thwart Aristophanes. Two years later, Aristophanes premiered “The Knights,” which mocked Cleon, leaving him working as a sausage seller outside the city.

How a competition honoring a king's birthday uncovered history's first chaotic system

A committee established a contest for King Oscar II's 60th birthday, featuring four unsolved problems in mathematics, including one on proving the stability of a system of more than two objects held together by gravity. Focusing on three celestial objects, Henri Poincaré won the prize for his proof, which he later learned was incorrect and, upon correcting it, instead proved these systems to be unstable.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote a satirical essay about passing gas

The Founding Father was asked to judge a contest for the Royal Academy of Brussels, but was incensed by one of the contest's questions, which he believed was highly impractical. In response, he wrote a piece suggesting that the most essential problem for scientists to solve was the "fetid Smell" that came with passing gas.

The Planetary Society provides an active role in advancing space exploration

Founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Louis Friedman, and Bruce Murray in response to public interest in space not adequately reflected in government investment, it is now the world’s largest nonprofit space organization, with more than 2 million members.

'The Republic of Letters' was an analog internet for the Enlightenment.

The virtual intellectual society exchanged tens of thousands of letters and spanned several continents. Some of its most avid correspondents were Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, and Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.

James Madison spoke six languages

James Madison was competent in six languages: Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, and English. This shaped his classical education and informed his political philosophy. He later also studied Hebrew at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton).

James Webb championed both space science and human spaceflight at NASA

As NASA Administrator during the 1960s, Webb prioritized a balanced approach between manned missions and scientific research, fostering advancements in astronomy, robotic exploration, and university involvement. Despite having no background in science or engineering, Webb oversaw more than 75 space science mission.

The Illuminati were a real espionage society in the 1770s

Bavarian professor Adam Weishaupt founded the group in 1776 as an anti-clerical, anti-royalist sect that used hierarchy, codes, and surveillance as a proto-spy network. Within a decade, it was suppressed, but the mythology never quite died. Today, it functions as an adaptable conspiracy theory, able to fit any era's anxieties about who really holds power.

Benjamin Franklin founded America's first lending library in 1731

Franklin convinced members of his intellectual club to pool resources and purchase books none could afford individually. The Library Company of Philadelphia was founded with 50 shareholders, each contributing 40 shillings, and served as the unofficial, de facto Library of Congress from the Revolutionary War until 1800.

Distinguishing between scientific theories and laws, and why both are on equal footing

Scientific laws describe outcomes of specific conditions, and scientific theories explain why those outcomes occur. Both are supported by observational and experimental data and can each inform one another, but neither can become the other. Instead, additional data can improve each towards more accurate descriptions and explanations of reality.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Volcanologist survives 5 eruptions while living on Mount Vesuvius

As physicist Luigi Palmieri ducked around lava flowing down the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, he also solidified the field of volcanology. This article details his contribution to science through his dangerous ventures to the volcano that buried Pompeii...

The greenhouse effect was discovered by analyzing Earth's temperature

Using mathematical techniques developed to analyze heat transfer, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier showed that Earth should be significantly cooler if solar radiation were the only contributor to its surface temperature. By considering that the atmosphere could amplify the sun's warming effect, he formulated what became known as the greenhouse effect.

How do scientists study far away stars?

Astronomy is the only science that is purely observational: meaning, scientists can't study stars in a lab. Here's a breakdown of how modern researchers use new tools to understand objects billions of light years away. As it turns out, the rules of science allow us to identify, categorize, and experiment with phenomena light years away.

A quote by scientist Nikola Tesla

"The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result ... His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way."

Lagrange points offer energy-efficient orbits for telescopes

Lagrange Points are special locations where gravitational forces let spacecraft "park" without constant course corrections, making them ideal for science missions. NASA’s James Webb Telescope uses Lagrange Point 2 to stay aligned with Earth while orbiting the Sun.

The Medicis of Italy innovated 'bills of exchange,' precursors to checks

At the time, lending money for interest (also known as usury) was banned in much of the Christian world. The enterprising Medicis developed bills of exchange to allow merchants to promise payment without cash or coin (with some discrete means of earning interest woven in). Learn more about how this family laid the foundation for modern banking.

Picasso was on trial for the theft of the 'Mona Lisa'

On August 22, 1911, the world was stunned by the theft of the "Mona Lisa" from the Louvre in Paris. As an international investigation searched for the culprit, a young Picasso was suspected to be part of a group of its thieves. While innocent in the disappearance of the Mona Lisa, he found himself on trial with reasonable suspicion: He was in possession of two Iberian statues that were the property of the same museum.

Before discovering cells, life was believed to emerge suddenly from inorganic matter

Popularized by Aristotle in the 4th century BCE, spontaneous generation was used to explain phenomena like mice appearing in seemingly sealed grain storage. The invention of the compound microscope in the late 16th century led to the identification of cells as the basic unit of life, but it was not until 1855 that their origin from preexisting cells was established.

Linguists proved Shakespeare wrote his plays

In the 1800s, linguist Wincenty Lutoslawski invented a method of linguistics analysis called stylometry to help certify literary authorship. Stylometrists concluded that Shakespeare wrote his plays, and likely collaborated with Christopher Marlowe for some.

The petty ancient Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus

Classics with a capital "C" probably doesn't bring to mind erotically charged diss poetry. Gaius Valerius Catullus would like to change that. Instead of mythical epics, Catullus wrote poetry about his personal life as part of the 1st century BCE's "new wave" of Roman poets embracing the lyrical and everyday. The focus of his poetic work ranges from serenades to spiteful insults.

Using scientific bets, Hawking challenged and highlighted major physics ideas

Hawking famously placed wagers on high-stakes questions in theoretical physics—such as the Higgs boson—for fun and to draw attention to science. When Hawking lost a bet about Cygnus X-1 being a black hole, he paid up with a magazine subscription.

Italian physicist Enrico Fermi (1901–1954) on the Standard Model

"If I could remember the name of all these particles, I'd be a botanist."

The story of Hypatia, a leading Roman scholar murdered by monks

Hypatia of Alexandria was a secular philosopher in Egypt who headed a university, improved scientific instruments, penned textbooks, and advised the city's leaders. As a Neoplatonist, she approached numbers as a sacred language. Religious fervor and her visible advisory role led to her brutal dismemberment by rogue monks.