Predavanje

 The age-old awe that man has had for the heavens has driven almost all aspects of human culture and knowledge and resulted in technologies with generally positive, though occasionally negative effect. Arguably the most positive have taken place since Galileo recognized that the phases of Venus provided the evidence that confirmed the Copernican heliocentric system and cemented his position firmly as the “Father of Science”. From this moment on we had, at long last, a straightforward philosophical construct and language which enabled mankind to determine what is and is not “True”. Particularly important truths have resulted from the curiosity that humans have had for a detailed understanding of the way Universe works. This led to the development of astrophysics and the associated technologies that have been spun-off. Not least of these has been the telescope – from Galileo’s beautiful original design to the fantastic satellite-born devices put up by NASA. These have not only enabled us to observe the planets and stars more clearly but we have been able to see to the very edge of the Universe and make a plethora of discoveries about all aspects of the Universe from the occupants of the space between stars to the processes occurring deep inside stars. Perhaps the most fundamental advance based on space observations led to the development of Classical Mechanics in order to understand the motions of the planets and comets and concommitantly the development Calculus, one of the greatest of Mathematical achievements. As Quantum Mechanics developed along with Spectroscopy it was inevitable that we should start to study the atomic and molecular composition of heavenly bodies - first hot stars as well as cool comets. With the development of radiotelescopes, the very cold interstellar medium was found to be a veritable Pandora's Box, full to the brim with fascinating and exotic molecules, dust particles and also some highly puzzling material responsible for some as yet unidentified spectroscopic features. These latter are known as the Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIBs) first observed in the 1920s.