One hundred and
seventy years before Galileo, in 1394, Mohammed Taragay Ulugbek, the grandson
of the famous conqueror Timur, was born. Ulugbek became the ruler of Samarkand.
He ordered the construction of an observatory, invited many prominent
astronomers and mathematicians and devoted the rest of his life to the study of
stars.
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| Spyglass |
The clergy, of
course, accused him of heresy, a violation of God's laws. Ulugbek was
treacherously killed, his observatory was destroyed. But Ulugbek was not the
first.
The ancient
Eastern legend speaks of events even more ancient. As if four thousand years
ago, a glass grinder worked in the king’s palace. Once he made a pipe by
inserting perfectly polished glasses into it. Looking through the tube at the
sky, a man saw thousands of new stars.
The royal
servants got to know about his pastime, reported to the king, and he ordered
the grinder to be declared a sorcerer and imprisoned... Is this true or
fiction, who knows?
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| Modern Microscope |
Years passed,
tens, hundreds of years. New scientists replaced Galileo. The world was seized
with a thirst for knowledge. Mysterious celestial spaces attracted scientists.
Some pointed
their telescopes at the sky and peered into the mysterious starlight. Others
polished the glass and examined through it the structure of green leaves, human
skin, tree roots. The desire to know as much as possible about the surrounding
nature has captured people from different countries. The first primitive
microscopes and telescopes were gradually replaced by more advanced ones.
