![]() Prosecuted by the Inquisition, Galilei had to abjure his heretical teachings in 1633. Galileo’s findings not only precipitated the Catholic church into the deepest crisis it had ever known, but also marked the transition from the transcendental and mystical concept of light of the Middle Ages to the “scientific light” of the Modern Ages. Not even the sun, which had been considered an immaterial source of divine light by medieval scholars, turned out to be no more than a “rock of fire”, as Anaxagoras had called it 2,000 years before. Galileo went on to more discoveries that made Aristotle’s’ theories obsolete most notably, Jupiter’s moons and the sunspots. It is formed by four dark patches that were probably caused by large flows of basalt lava some four billion years ago). (This newly discovered texture has nothing to do with the apparent ‘face of the moon’ which can be seen with the naked eye. In the light of this, Galileo’s findings were alarming news: he discovered found out that the moon’s surface was rugged and full of craters, 3,000 of which on the visible side of the moon alone have so far been identified and named. As they consist of quintessence, all celestial bodies must, by nature, possess a perfect and immaculate spherical shape. From the moon onwards the universe consisted of an ethereal, indestructible quintessence, literally: the fifth element or substance, which is only capable of moving in perfect circles. In his scripture ‘On the Heavens’, the Greek philosopher had outlined a concept of the world that was to be valid for nearly two millennia: the earth, as the immovable centre of the universe, is surrounded by concentric strata: first, the four elements (earth, water, air and fire), and then the seven planetary spheres: the moon, Venus, Mercury, the sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In doing so, he observed that the earth’s companion was by no means the smooth, immaculate sphere it should have been according to the theories of Aristotle, which, despite their pagan origin, medieval Christian society still adhered to. In 1609, the Italian mathematician and astronomer turned one of his first self-built ‘perspective glasses’ – telescopes we would call them today – to the moon. It took Galileo Galilei only a small apparatus to change the human perception of the world. So it is worthwhile taking a look beneath the surfaces of our world. But it is our ability to interpret surfaces correctly that is, and will continue to be, decisive for the survival of our planet. Almost any surface can today be created artificially, even some that appear to have no immediate or future application. At the same time, there is little of the earth’s surface that has not been transformed by human beings – some scientists envisage the oceans themselves being transformed into huge algae farms. Swimsuits are modelled on sharkskin, dirt-repellent fabrics on lotus leaves and anti-microbial plastic-film wrapping on ostrich eggs. In an alternating process of give and take, we learn from the surfaces of nature and shape them according to our wishes. The metabolism of any living creature will inevitably involve its surface – be it through evaporation, the intake of sunlight energy or food, or heat exchange.īut it has been a long time since the surfaces of our world were determined solely by the laws of nature. In nature as in technology, surfaces act as communication interfaces, providing a means of exchanging matter and information. Their interaction with light provides us with more than three quarters of our sensory experience, but also with the energy that we live and feed on. Surfaces of things constitute our image of the world.
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