Today's video is about a scientist
Wait, wait, no, before you click away from the video because scientists are boring and all they do is calculate
This is not your everyday scientist
This is Tycho Brahe, and his story includes a pet moose, a psychic jester and a lot of alcohol!
Tycho was the first astronomer to correctly define supernova, disputing the theory
That dates back all the way to Aristotle, which says that everything behind the Moon is eternally unchangeable
His measurements were far more precise than any of his contemporaries’, which is even more admirable
When we take into consideration that the telescope didn’t even exist in the 16th century
His personal life was unconventional to say the least, and his pretty bizarre story begins with him as a baby
At the age of 2, Tycho was only one of 12 children to live with his uncle and not his family
His uncle Jorgen was said to have kidnapped him from his brother
Who went back on his promise to gift the baby to him
However, many dispute this to be true, and say that his father sent him to his uncle
Probably because he had already started drinking and telling rude jokes in front of his mom
When he turned 15, Tycho was sent on a Eurotrip to study law.
But, as astronomy was his passion, he enrolled in Leipzig University
Where he observed the planets and found faults in Copernican tables
This inspired him greatly to pursue his passion for astronomy
And he gave up on his uncle’s wishes to become a civil servant.
During this time, Denmark was in war with Sweden and his uncle became a national hero
He died of pneumonia which he contracted when he jumped in the river
To save the king who was drunk and fell in
At this point, Tycho inherited his uncle Jorgen’s wealth and land
And even without this, he was an heir to his mom and dad’s families, which were noble and incredibly rich
Tycho also counted four other noble families as his ancestors and at the time owned 1% of all the money in Denmark
And, of course, like any sane scientist would, he used this money for research and for alcohol
When Tycho was 20 years old, he attended a wedding dance in Germany.
Obviously, he got drunk and got into a fight with his cousin
They had a typical drunk fight over a mathematical formula, so Tycho decided to google the right answer
Since the Internet didn’t exist, that solution failed, so they chose the only alternative at the time
A duel in the dark!
Tycho arrived drunk to the duel and lost his nose in the course of the fight
From that point on, he wore a fake nose, supposedly made out of gold which he would glue to his face with paste
Tycho wanted to move to Basel to continue with his work, but when the king heard about this
He didn’t want to lose such a great scientist and offered Tycho the island of Hven
And also paid for the construction of his own observatory
Until then, Hven was occupied by around 50 farmer families.
When Tycho came, he made himself an absolute ruler, he made all the decisions without consulting anyone
And made the residents work unpaid on building his new castle
He also demanded for them to cultivate twice as much as before
And made a system of ponds so that the farmers could work in a paper mill
Because, you know, Tycho's books required paper
The farmers decided to sue Tycho and they won
The court made Tycho sign contracts with the residents in which the terms didn’t really change
Except that, now, they had it in writing...
Tycho’s time on Hven was marked by almost daily parties and excessive drinking
He had a little person on as a jester which Tycho thought was psychic and could predict the future
Psychic or not, the jester was forced to eat his dinner under the table
And to insult the guests all for Tycho’s amusement
He also held a tamed moose in his castle as a pet
As Tycho was enjoying drinking too much, he saw nothing wrong with making the moose drink
Lots of beer and be drunk every night
One time, his noble friend asked him to send the moose to his castle for a party and the moose came without Tycho
It drank beer and got very drunk. When it tried to climb down the stairs, it fell to its death
The king also died and that meant the end of Tycho’s Hven haven
The new juvenile king was against him thanks to his advisors who hated Tycho
He also wasn’t particularly happy about the rumors that Tycho was having an affair with the king’s mother
He went into exile and arrived in Prague on the Bohemian king's invitation
There, Johannes Kepler became his assistant
Kepler later went on to become one of the most important scientists of the 17th century.
Tycho spent his last four years in Prague, where he worked on trying to prove that Copernican studies were wrong
He was correct in thinking that the Moon orbits around the Earth, and that the planets orbit around the Sun
However, he also thought that the Sun orbits around the Earth
During his entire life, Tycho also focused on astrology and alchemy
He wanted to discover a medicine which would cure every single disease
And mixed astrology with astronomy to make future predictions
For example, he predicted that Ivan the Terrible would die in 1583. He died a year later
In 1601, he attended a banquet. As you would expect, he started drinking heavily and had to pee
However, he refused to do it because it was against the etiquette to leave the table before the host
This resulted in a burst bladder and he died 11 days later
In his last days, feeling what was about to come, Tycho wrote his own epitaph
"He lived like a sage and died like a fool."