Denmark: Notable Scientists, Mathematicians, and Inventors

1546 - 1601 - Tycho Brahe (All Facts)

• Danish Astronomer

  • He was the world’s foremost astronomer

• He

  • was granted the island of Hven in South Denmark by King Frederick II to build his observatory

  • had also set up an observatory in Prague with the help of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II

    • He worked at this observatory with Johannes Kepler

• He

  • understood the need for constant observation of the skies and perfected instruments which enabled him to do so with accuracy

  • logged more than 777 stars in a 20-year career of observing space

    • He sighted a new star in space, which he observed in the constellation of Cassiopeia

      • This was a body more brilliant than Venus where no star was supposed to be

    • He carried out further research and found that this object lay beyond the moon in the realm of what were believed to be “fixed” stars, which both intrigued and disquieted the scientific community at the time

    • His discoveries and explanations of them implied that the stars are not immutable and eternal, as proposed by Aristotle, and come and go

    • His sighting, along with Copernicus’s “Heliocentric Model” contributed to the shaking of the concept of celestial stability that had existed prior

    • However, he himself had rejected Copernicus’s “Heliocentric Model”

  • perfected a table of correction for the better identification of stars

    • It is through this table that he was able to compile his own impressive catalog of celestial objects

• He also increased human knowledge about

  • the moon

  • the refraction of light

• He died in Prague

1677 - 1686 - Nicolas Steno (All Facts)

• Danish Anatomist, Geologist, and Theologian

• He taught anatomy / as an anatomist in Copenhagen

• He discovered that the heart is a muscle

• He gave the first specific interpretation of the origin of fossil animals, thus setting out the basis for stratigraphy (chronological geology)

1625 - 1698 - Erasmus Bartholin (All Facts)

• Danish Physicist

• He observed that Iceland spar crystals make rays of light which divide upon entering them (double refraction)

1644 - 1710 - Ole Rømer (All Facts)

• Danish Astronomer

• He observed eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter while trying to calculate the speed of light