Being a resident of Southern California, I feel really blessed to have such a wonderful science attraction in my own backyard.  And with the special significance of this year and our trip to Griffith, I am even now more appreciative.

This year, the Observatory is celebrating the International Year of Astronomy, marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s pioneering observations of the heavens with his telescope.

In 1609, Galileo created one of the most powerful telescopes of the day, and upon completing his device, he turned it to the skies, observing celestial features such as the Moon and the planet Jupiter.  Within the first few days of the following year, he observed, for the first time, four of the moons circling Jupiter – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. 

Prior to that time, outside of our own Moon, no person had ever seen celestial bodies orbiting planets, so viewing these satellites with such clarity was quite an achievement in and of itself.

Yet, the most powerful impact of Galileo’s observations would be what he chose to present about the moons’ movements.

Galileo, in publishing his observations, “concluded, and decided unhesitatingly, that there are three stars in the heavens moving about Jupiter, as Venus and Mercury around the Sun” and “that there are not only three, but four, erratic sidereal bodies performing their revolutions around Jupiter.”

By concluding that Jupiter’s moon orbited around the planet and further that they were similar to how Venus and Mercury orbited around the Sun, Galileo was siding with the theories of Nicolaus Copernicus.  And in Galileo’s times, this was a direct challenge to the conventional wisdom.

In 1543, Copernicus published work describing his heliocentric model, where planets revolved around the Sun, opposing the current thinking of the time that all celestial bodies, including the Sun, revolved around the Earth.

Of course, we know today that the Earth revolves around the Sun, so this certainly doesn’t come as a shocking statement to us.  But in the 17th century, this was heresy.  This challenged the view that most philosophers and astronomers held – that the Earth was the center of the universe.

Even with over sixty years having passed since Copernicus presented his theories, Galileo was met with bitter opposition.  In fact, some of his fellow scientists eventually reported him to the Roman Inquisition in 1615.

While cleared by the Roman Catholic Church at the time, the Church denounced the heliocentric model as “false and contrary to Scripture”.  However, this was not the end of the public attack upon Galileo and his scientific work.

When Galileo later defended his views in his work, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Views, in 1632, he was tried for heresy by the Inquisition, forced to recant his public writings, and placed under house arrest by the Pope.

While many people, including other scientists and the leaders of the Catholic Church, didn’t want Galileo’s views to be believed, Galileo was right in the end.  His observations provided evidence for a model that better explains what is true about our universe.

He had the courage to present his views publicly, and he pushed human society forward.  He chose to challenge the views of the dominant political force of the day, the Catholic Church – not for the sake of challenging it, but for the purpose of presenting the truth.

We can progress as a people when individuals stand up and choose to force us all to recognize the truth.  Galileo, with his simple observations of the satellites of Jupiter, profoundly forced that recognition. 

If everyone blindly agreed with everyone else, we wouldn’t change or move forward.  We wouldn’t progress or become better or improve our understanding. 

It takes individuals to present certain countering views, making us think about what is right and what is the truth.  These individuals are the ones that ultimately make the positive difference in our human history.

Four hundred years later, we now celebrate Galileo and his creation of the device that changed our understanding of the universe. 

But in addition, we should also celebrate Galileo’s willingness to challenge the conventional wisdom and change the world.

When Stephen Hawking was born, he came into our world exactly 300 years after Galileo Galilei left.  Two great scientists, connected by their birthdays, separated by three centuries.

Yet, the most remarkable aspect of Stephen Hawking’s contributions to science is his ability to communicate his ideas to others, especially those outside the sciences.

And of course, this is made even more remarkable given what he has personally had to overcome.

Stephen Hawking received his Ph.D. in cosmology from Cambridge University, but almost upon arriving there, he started developing the symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.  This is a type of neurological disease that causes loss of neuromuscular control and, in many cases, paralysis.

Hawking is now bound to a wheelchair, is almost entirely paralyzed, and can only speak through the aid of a computer-generated voice synthesizer.  Hawking uses his cheek to painstakingly enter words into the communications device, so constructing complete sentences is a long process.

While people who develop the stages of ALS are given about two to five years of life expectancy, Hawking has survived with the disease for well over 40 years.

Yet despite these physical challenges, he achieved great scientific success, being selected the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University (the same position held by Issac Newton 300 years earlier) and being named a Fellow of the Royal Society, Britain’s oldest and most prestigious scientific association.

However, Hawking’s most indelible contribution to science would be the publication of his best-selling book A Brief History Of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times bestsellers list a record-breaking 237 weeks.

In his book, Hawking explains the aspects of cosmology, including black holes, the Big Bang, and superstring theory, to those not skilled in the sciences.  His entire goal for the book was to communicate his knowledge to others who didn’t have his background in physics, and probably would not understand complex mathematics by showing equation after equation after equation.

In fact, as the story goes, Hawking was warned by his editor that for every equation he included in the book, his readership would be cut in half.  For that reason, he only included Einstein’s E=mc² relationship, and went further to make the subject accessible by including many illustrations throughout the book.

While Stephen Hawking can teach us a great deal about black holes and gravitational singularities, he teaches us much more about something else that makes him a great scientist.  The fact is that information in his mind would be useless to anyone else if he wasn’t able, somehow, to communicate it effectively.

Society progresses when the innovators and the discoverers share with others what their ideas are and what they’ve discovered.

Becoming successful in science and technology takes a desire to communicate what you know to others, so that they can share and build on these discoveries. 

The greatest impact of your work will be when more people know and rely upon your insights.  However, they won’t be able to do that unless they understand what you know.  And for them to know and to understand, you must make the choice to explain what you know and communicate your understanding effectively.

Just imagine the loss to our world had Stephen Hawking not developed his magnificent ability to communicate what he knows.  Certainly many explanations could have been given that his physical ailments have locked away his understanding and prevented the world from accessing his knowledge.

However, he chose to overcome these limitations and developed his extraordinary means of communicating his knowledge and understanding.

And the world, in fact the universe, is a better place for it.