The History of Optics - from telescopes to microscopes, a new way of seeing the world
MAR 06, 2007
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.020915
BBC Radio 4 (audio) : From telescopes to microscopes, from star-gazing to the intimacies of a magnified fleaâ¦today it’s the history of optics. As Galileo turned his telescope to the heavens in the early 1600s, Kepler began to formulate a theory of optics. The new and improving instruments went hand in hand with radical new ideas about how we see as well as what we see. Spectacles allowed scholars to study long into the evening (and into old age), while giant telescopes, up to 100 feet long, led to the discovery of planets and attempts to map the universe.
© 2007 American Institute of Physics
