#18: Going Blind, Still Working
During his later years under house arrest, Galileo’s eyesight failed, and he eventually became blind. The irony is almost too heavy: the man whose telescope had changed humanity’s view of the heavens lost his own sight. Yet he continued to work, dictating and refining ideas with the help of assistants and visitors. His later book, Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences, helped lay foundations for modern physics. The Church restricted his voice, but not his momentum.
