Screaming Penguin

I have not yet read Heavenly Intrigue : Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One Of History's Greatest Scientific Discoveries but I have read some of the debate over the book and heard a very interesting interview with the authors, Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder, on the current episode of Berkely GROKS. The conculusion of the book, per the authors in the interview, is that Tycho Brahe was murdered, poisoned with mercury, and that the chief suspect should be Johannes Kepler (note the authors were very clear in their interview that they do not condemn Kepler outright, that they have no firm conclusion/evidence, only a lot of circumstance, motive and opportunity which points to Kepler, Kepler should be the prime suspect). As several of the books reviewers have pointed out, the Gilders have done a great job of documenting the interesting lives of both Brahe and Kepler, and have illuminated the murder of Brahe via mercury poisoning. The evidence for the murder itself is very clear. However, there is no real evidence, beyond conjecture based on interpretation of his own writings and motives, and his vicinity to the crime, that Kepler was the murderer.