Did Galileo [Galilei] ever conduct experiments from atop the Tower or is that a myth?
There is no hard evidence to support the almost universally held claim. The myth first emerged as a result of the overripe imagination of Galileo’s secretary and first biographer, Vincenzo Viviani. The image of Galileo atop the Tower proved so compelling that nearly every subsequent biographer incorporated the myth, in various guises, as a pivotal event in the life of the scientist, and indeed, the whole history of modern science. By what method was the Tower stabilized in the 1990s? By a method known as soil extraction, or soil subsidence, in which earth was excavated from beneath the foundation on the north side in order to gently coax the structure back toward the perpendicular. As of today, what is the long-term prognosis for the Tower? Engineers responsible for the successful restoration effort estimate that the Tower will be stable for another 300 years, but bear in mind too that natural causes such as an earthquake (and Pisa is in a region of considerable seismic activity), coul
