Galileo identified and applied the main principles on which modern science is based and which allowed it to develop after the Renaissance: the role of the hypothesis, observation and experience; the rejection of dogmatisms in the search for truth; the use of mathematical language to decipher the “great book of nature”. It would be wonderful if these principles formed the foundations of science teaching. Unfortunately this is not the case in most of Europe. Why did this approach fade away at the very time – middle of 19th century onwards – that scientific development was taking on unprecedented dimensions?

Pierre Léna is an astrophysicist and professor emeritus at the Diderot University of Paris. He worked on the development of Europe’s Very Large Telescope.