Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe were two sixteenth century scientists who helped to advance science. They were both handicapped (Kepler had weak eyesight and Brahe had a fake nose), but they pushed through and made fame and a name for themselves.
Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician and astronomer. He had smallpox when he was young and this weakened his body considerably, especially his eyesight. He continued with his practices despite this handicap.
Kepler is best known for his laws of planetary motion, but he also influenced the later scientist Isaac Newton in his discovery of gravity. Kepler supported Copernicus’ theory of heliocentricity and thoroughly believed in it.
Kepler journeyed to Prague in later years and met a man named Tycho Brahe, a man who was as famous as Kepler himself.
Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer, mathematician, alchemist and medic. He was very exact in all of his accounts and books, something which characterized him.
Brahe served under two kings, first the King of Denmark until they had a disagreement, and then he served under the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II until his death, in 1601.
Brahe developed his own theory of the universe by combining the works of Ptolemy (an early astronomer who invented the geocentric view of the universe) and Copernicus (the man who discovered the correct theory of heliocentricity). Out of these two he made his own view—the Tychonic theory.
These two men, though not viewed as great in their time, helped gear science towards what we have nowadays. Men like Kepler and Brahe were valuable in that they were some of the few that were willing to stand up for what they believed in.
The Alchemy of Art 