Siderius Nuncius and the British Museum

Our Great British Adventure

May 11, 2018

As part of Anthony's conference we were offered a tour of the Royal Academy of Sciences in the morning before the conference talks started. We ended up not touring the building, preferring to spend the entire time in their library.

We saw Newton's death mask (and learned death masks were the inspiration for Madam Tussauds, which I went past on my bus tour but didn't visit) and Herschel's letter about the "comet" he'd seen (which turned out to be the discovery of Uranus). There were other treasures too but the highlight for me was seeing their copy of Siderius Nuncius, by Galileo.

After that excitement it was time for the conference people to head off so I went back towards our hotel and visited the British Museum. I had a wonderful time roaming the exhibits there, but only had time for a fraction of what they had to offer. Another visit is definitely called for!