-
How do you imagine the life of a scientist?
-
Boring and monotonous,
-
spending endless hours in the lab
-
with no social interaction?
-
Maybe for some but not Tycho Brahe.
-
The 16th century scholar who accurately predicted planetary motion
-
and cataloged hundreds of stars before the telescope had been invented
-
also had a cosmic-sized personal life.
-
Tycho Brahe was born in 1546 to Danish nobles,
-
but at age two was kidnapped to be raised by his uncle instead.
-
His parents didn't seem to mind.
-
Tycho was supposed to have a career in law,
-
but after witnessing a solar eclipse at thirteen,
-
he began spending more time
-
with mathematics and science professors,
-
who taught him the art of celestial observation.
-
By the time Tycho's uncle sent him off to Germany a few years later,
-
he had lost interest in his law studies,
-
instead reading astronomy books,
-
improving his instruments,
-
and taking careful notes of the night skies.
-
It wasn't long before his own measurements
-
were more accurate than those in his books.
-
While in Germany, Tycho got into a bit of an argument
-
with another student at a party
-
over a mathematical formula,
-
resulting in a sword duel
-
and Tycho losing a good-sized chunk of his nose.
-
After that, he was said to have worn
-
a realistic prosthetic of gold and silver
-
that he would glue onto his face.
-
Fortunately, Tycho didn't need his nose
-
to continue his astronomical work.
-
He kept studying the night sky
-
and creating all sorts of instruments,
-
including a building-sized quadrant for measuring
-
the angles of stars.
-
After months of careful observation,
-
Tycho discovered a new star
-
in the constellation Cassiopeia.
-
The publication of this discovery granted him rock star status
-
and offers of scientific positions all over Europe.
-
Wanting to keep him at home,
-
the King of Denmark offered to give Tycho
-
his own personal island with a state of the art observatory.
-
Called Uraniborg and costing about 1% of Denmark's entire budget,
-
this observatory was more of a castle,
-
containing formal gardens,
-
rooms for family, staff and visiting royalty,
-
and an underground section just for all the giant instruments.
-
Tycho also built a papermill and printing press
-
for publishing his papers,
-
and a lab for studying alchemy.
-
And since no castle would be complete
-
without entertainment,
-
Tycho employed a clairvoyant dwarf
-
named Jep as court jester.
-
Tycho lived on his island,
-
studying and partying for about 20 years.
-
But after falling out with the new Danish King,
-
he took up an invitation from the Holy Roman Emperor
-
to become the official imperial astronomer in Prague.
-
There, he met another famous astronomer Johannes Kepler,
-
who became his assistant.
-
While Kepler's work interested him,
-
Tycho was protective of his data,
-
and the two often got into heated arguments.
-
In 1601, Tycho attended a formal banquet
-
where he drank quite a lot
-
but was too polite to leave the table to relieve himself,
-
deciding to tough it out instead.
-
This proved to be a bad idea,
-
as he quickly developed a bladder infection
-
and died a few days later.
-
But over 400 years after his death,
-
Tycho still had a few surprises up his sleeve.
-
When his body was exhumed and studied in 2010,
-
the legendary gold and silver nose
-
was nowhere to be found,
-
with chemical traces suggesting
-
that he wore a more casual brass nose instead.
-
Tycho's mustache hair was also found
-
to contain unusually high levels of toxic mercury.
-
Was it from a medicine used to treat his bladder infection?
-
A residue from his alchemy experiments?
-
Or did his quarrelsome coworker Johannes Kepler
-
poison him to acquire his data?
-
We may never know,
-
but the next time you think scientists lead boring lives,
-
dig a little deeper.
-
A fascinating story may be just beyond the tip of your nose.