Today’s Google doodle is dedicated to the 540th birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus – the man famous for the heliocentric model of our universe ie the model that puts the sun at the centre. Up until this model it was believed that it was the Planet Earth, in fact, which was at the centre. We now know that the Sun is the centre, not of the universe, but of our own solar system. However this revolutionary idea was a massive advance over previous theories and sowed the seeds for the scientific revolution which was to follow. One of the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, jurist with a doctorate in law, physician, quadrilingual polyglot, classics scholar, translator, artist, Catholic priest, governor, diplomat and economist. Feel free to check out the doodle at google.com (expired) and wish this Polish genius “wszystkiego najwspanialszego.” (that’s Polish for “happy birthday.”)

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