S8 Ep882: Matthew Shindell examines the Scientific Revolution, noting how pioneers like Galileo and Newton gradually replaced ancient models with modern physics and natural history. By the 18th century, William Herschel popularized the idea of an inhabited Mars, be

Matthew Shindell examines the Scientific Revolution, noting how pioneers like Galileo and Newton gradually replaced ancient models with modern physics and natural history. By the 18th century, William Herschel popularized the idea of an inhabited Mars, believing it to be the most Earth-like planet in the solar system. This curiosity peaked with Giovanni Schiaparelli's mapping of Martian "canals," which Percival Lowell later interpreted as evidence of a desperate, dying civilization. Shindell notes that H.G. Wells transformed these projections into satire, using The War of the Worlds to critique British imperialism through the lens of an alien invasion. (3/4)september 1941