Saturday, December 17, 2005

Galileo's Middle Finger

Galileo's middle finger of his right hand was removed from his body and put into a display case (around 1737) like a holy relic. It's on display at the Institute and Museum of the History of Science (IMSS is the Italian abbreviation) in Florence, Italy. (Hat tip to Alan W. Harris of the Space Science Institute, for his letter on pp. 67-68 of the January/February 2006 Skeptical Inquirer pointing this out. He notes that "One of my scientific colleagues, upon viewing it, noted dryly that it 'was not noticeably pointed toward Rome.'")

No comments: