I asked some Group members for guidance to information about Bruno. I got the following as one reference. The author of the article is not a member of the Group.

His [Bruno's] place in a documentary [COSMOS] ostensibly about science is inexplicable. Actual scientists worked on similar ideas, but only Bruno is called out in [the] ten-minute long segment.

The question is: why?

The narration begins by telling us that in “1599 everyone knew the sun, planets and stars were just lights in sky revolving around the earth.” It was “a universe made for us.” And “there was only one man who envisioned an infinitely grand cosmos.”

We’re barely seconds into this farrago[/] and we have our first LIE.

“Everyone” knew the earth was the center of the universe?

Wow, who’s going to tell Copernicus? Kepler? Stigliola? Diggs? Maestlin? Rothmann? Brahe? All of them believed in models of the cosmos that were not considered orthodox, and lived at the time of Bruno. All of them escaped the fire, and indeed weren’t even pursued by the Inquisition. Right here we have the major lie at the heart of modern anti-religious scientific propaganda: the war between faith and science.

We’re supposed to just assume this ignorant backwards world of the past hates smart people. Tyson himself says it matter-of-factly: “How was [Bruno] spending New Year’s Eve [in 1599]? In prison, of course.”

Of course! Because that’s what the Church does to smart people! Bad church! Bad!
- See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godandthem ... EkDFD.dpuf

Regarding "seeing".....

Gravitational waves unmask universe just after Big Bang
Astronomers have detected the earliest echoes of the Big Bang, confirming a decades-old hypothesis that describes the universe’s ultrafast expansion during its first moments. The findings provide researchers with the first direct measurement of conditions at nearly the instant that cosmic expansion began, and may have far-reaching implications for physicists’ understanding of general relativity, quantum mechanics and the origin of the universe.

...Gravitational ripples induced by inflation would have set up swirling patterns in the polarization. Up until now, this “B-mode polarization” has been exceedingly difficult to detect. But a detection of B-mode polarization would strengthen the case for inflation: Primordial gravitational waves are the only known source. That’s just what a group of researchers did, the team announced today. Led by John Kovac, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the researchers measured subtle variations in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background using the BICEP2 telescope.

Christopher Crockett 3/17/14
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/gra ... r-big-bang

Thanks, Landroid, for posting that article.

I've got Cosmos' second episode on my TiVo. Probably will watch it tonight.

I happen to support the idea of inflation but if you look carefully at the news story just released about the gravity waves you will find it is another of the long list of non-discovery discovery stories. We get about one per month where some discovery is hyped as fact only to discover in the fine print that it isn't really proven yet.

This is one among many reasons why I think this production of COSMOS is premature. There are too many things brewing at the moment. Of course, NDT is ripe for celebrity status so if he is to be the new Sagan, he can't afford to wait.

As for episode #2, NDT overcomplicated the domestication of wolves. I think humans were smatter than NDT allows and would have accomplished it much faster and easier and in a much more obvious way than NDT posits.

The episode hurries by the most vexing question for evolution - how did DNA originate both in terms of structure and operation?
They had a nice CGA about it but I guess they needed to spend time with NDT wandering about the cavernous and seemingly mostly empty Hall of Extinction tomb so they couldn't afford to explain DNA's origin.

I turned the episode off when the went to Titan. Exobiology should be left to Star Trek and other Sci-Fi shows, not a cartoon producer homage to NDT.

ries. We get about one per month where some discovery is hyped as fact only to discover in the fine print that it isn't really proven yet.

I think you're the only one expecting proof. From one of the researchers: “We now have a much stronger belief that we understand the early universe than we did yesterday,” says Sean Carroll, an astrophysicist at Caltech. Give it a while for the experiment to be refined and run again.

They had a nice CGA about it but I guess they needed to spend time with NDT wandering about the cavernous and seemingly mostly empty Hall of Extinction tomb so they couldn't afford to explain DNA's origin.

We could re-create life in a lab, and come up with 50 models on how it would have been possible in the pre-biotic soup. But for all that, we'll never truly know. Unless we build a time machine. Evolution is happening in the here and now, so we can study it. Abiogenesis is a billion years removed.

Aside from the subtle shots thrown at the caricature of religion, I greatly enjoyed COSMOS - Episode 2
NDT is doing a great job (I really mean that) but should be above Seth McFarlen type arrogant sarcasm.

NDT is doing a great job (I really mean that) but should be above Seth McFarlen type arrogant sarcasm.

I saw Seth on Bill Maher's show, and had the impression that he wasn't really the man for the job. I think some of the tone of the show - science vs religion - is directly from him. The person in his role should have a good understanding of how easy it is to polarize people.

Interbane wrote:

NDT is doing a great job (I really mean that) but should be above Seth McFarlen type arrogant sarcasm.

I saw Seth on Bill Maher's show, and had the impression that he wasn't really the man for the job. I think some of the tone of the show - science vs religion - is directly from him. The person in his role should have a good understanding of how easy it is to polarize people.

I agree with everything you wrote.

Having said what I don't appreciate, if i had a child, I actually would be reserving the time for my child and I to view it.
It brings back found memories.

I actually, in my layman research, have found a science hero that would have been a much better choice for COSMOS than Bruno, who obviously was selected for propaganda purposes.

Why not Thales of Miletus? (Wiki)

Thales of Miletus (/ˈθeɪliːz/; Greek: Θαλῆς (ὁ Μιλήσιος), Thalēs; c. 624 – c. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition.[1] According to Bertrand Russell, "Western philosophy begins with Thales."[2] Thales attempted to explain natural phenomena without reference to mythology and was tremendously influential in this respect. Almost all of the other Pre-Socratic philosophers follow him in attempting to provide an explanation of ultimate substance, change, and the existence of the world without reference to mythology. Those philosophers were also influential and eventually Thales' rejection of mythological explanations became an essential idea for the scientific revolution. He was also the first to define general principles and set forth hypotheses, and as a result has been dubbed the "Father of Science", though it is argued that Democritus is actually more deserving of this title.[3][4]
In mathematics, Thales used geometry to solve problems such as calculating the height of pyramids and the distance of ships from the shore. He is credited with the first use of deductive reasoning applied to geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales' Theorem. As a result, he has been hailed as the first true mathematician and is the first known individual to whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed.[5]

I think he was mentioned very briefly by Sagan.
A much, much better choice, in my opinion.
If I missed NDT mentioning him, please remind me.