Well, any of us who has ever looked through a telescope could say the same, for the two principal types in use today were developed by giants: the refractor by Galileo and the reflector by Newton.

Instead, they offered him payment in exchange for developing a binocular form of his invention. Shortly after he began producing his binoculars, news of the telescope reached Galileo. These days ...

Galileo Galilei was the founder of modern physics ... the centuries-long ferment accelerated and intensified by the invention of printing in the middle of the 15th century. He was not alone.