November/December print edition Editor's Notes: One of the most fascinating life-journeys in the history of science is that of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), the Italian scientist who challenged the received wisdom of his time, and for his pioneering work, was shut down by the Inquisition, which forced him to recant his scientific findings and go silent at the height of his powers.
As Mario Livio notes in his 2020 book Galileo and the Science Deniers, “Galileo’s journey as a scientist started in 1583, when he…began to study mathematics. By 1590, at the age of twenty-six, he already had the audacity to criticize the teachings on motion of the great Greek philosopher Aristotle, according to which things moved because of a built-in impetus.”
Yet, Livio notes, “In spite of his personal disagreements with some orthodox church dicta, as late as May 18, 1630, Galileo was still received in Rome as an honored guest by Pope Urban VIII, and he left the city under the impression that the Pope had approved the printing of his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems… Overestimating the strength of his friendship with the pontiff and underestimating the fragility of the delicate psychological and political position of the Pope in that turbulent post-Reformation era, Galileo continued to believe that reason would prevail. ‘Facts, which at first seem improbable, will, even on scant explanation, drop the cloak which has hidden them and stand forth in naked and simple beauty,’ he once wrote.”
Well, as it turns out, after the book was published in 1632, with its argument for heliocentrism—that the Earth revolved around the Sun and not vice-versa—the full weight of the Roman Inquisition crashed down on Galileo and, essentially threatened with his life, he was forced to recant the fact-based science he had pioneered, allegedly uttering under his breath the famous phrase “Eppure si muove”—“and yet it [the earth] does move.”
Still, it would be reductive to view Galileo as someone divorced from the realities of the time and place in which he lived and worked. Indeed, Alison Abbott, in a September 2018 article published in Nature, wrote about the discovery that Galileo had initially tried to hedge on some of his statements, even before the Inquisition pounced on him. Abbott writes that “The seven-page letter, written to a friend on 21 December 1613 and signed ‘G.G.,’ provides the strongest evidence yet that, at the start of his battle with the religious authorities, Galileo actively engaged in damage control and tried to spread a toned-down version of his claims.”
Galileo was a thought leader at a time and in a place where thought leadership was simply not welcomed. But what about now? The U.S. healthcare delivery system is in the midst of profound upheaval right now, both because of the huge disruption imposed on it by the COVID-19 pandemic; but also because that pandemic hit the delivery system at a time when the strategic and operational landscape of healthcare was already changing. This is no time for delicate constitutions; indeed, it’s clear that the senior leaders who are most willing to take intelligent risks and move forward into the uncharted future, are those who will end up leading their organizations forward into market leadership and longer-term success. All those interviewed for this issue’s cover story (p. 4 of our print and digital editions) speak to the challenges and opportunities involved in this unprecedented moment. And those most willing to lead, will be able to relate pretty well, I think, to “Eppure si muove.” They know that being on the right side of history means being bold—now as in the 17th century.
