Following a trial during which it is claimed his accusers refused to even look through his telescope, Galileo was found guilty of heresy. He spent the rest of his life, nearly a decade, under house arrest. Galileo was forced to abandon his data and discovery and recant his statement that the Earth circled the Sun, but legend has it that afterward, Galileo whispered under his breath, “And yet it moves.” The story is likely apocryphal, and even if it’s true, its truth is beside the point—or at least it was for poor Galileo. Consensus had won out over evidence.
