Tycho Brahe wanna-be
My face got fried this weekend. Now I'm worried about a little bump that I've noticed on my nose recently. It bugs me so much, I've made an appointment with the dermatologist next week. I'm not screwing around with skin cancer. Two guys I played softball with in the early 90's turned their wives into widows because they didn't take it seriously.
Having this bump on my nose reminded me of my astronomy class in college. Tycho Brahe was an astronomer who developed the Tychonic system, a theory that said the Sun revolved around the Earth, and the other planets revolved around the Sun. He knew that effective research could not be done without systematic and detailed observations. According to Wikipedia, "Tycho's naked eye measurements of planetary parallax were accurate to the arcminute." Not bad for not using a telescope!
So why did the bump remind me of Tycho Brahe? Well, he lost part of his nose in a duel and created a replacement out of gold and silver.
Besides the bling nose, Brahe was quite a character and apparently died as a result of a burst bladder. Wikipedia says "It had been said that to leave the banquet before it concluded would be the height of bad manners, and so he remained. His bladder, stretched to its limit, exploded. He died after eleven agonizing days." I remember my professor telling us Brahe had a bladder stone and the only way he could relieve himself was by standing on his head to dislodge the stone. Apparently, he didn't want to be seen at the banquest standing on his head and peeing.
It has also been suggested that he died of mercury poisoning, either intentionally by his wife or his apprentice. When I did a Google search for Brahe, an interesting book popped up from Amazon. I might need to pick up a copy of Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History's Greatest Scientific Discoveries.