From galileo to modern cosmology: Alternative paradigms and science boundary conditions

This chapter develops along two main lines. On the one hand, it is dedicated to those aspects of fundamental physics in tight relationship with modern cosmology: gravitation and dynamical theories, cosmological constant, and dark matter-energy content, early Universe phases, and the problem of the fundamental constants of physics. On the other hand, we have chosen to include a discussion of the various influences affecting modern astrophysics and cosmology. In fact, the development and the solutions to the fundamental problems of physics cannot be disjoined from the social conditions in which scientists operate. We start with a tribute to Galileo, based on an interview of historic character with Luisa Pigatto (Sect. 4.2), revisiting his times and his relationship with the cultural environment of Venice, in honor of the memory of the man who contributed so much to the development of the scientific method, and that, with his astronomical observations, prompted the first radical revolution of cosmological physics: the transition from the Ptolemaic paradigm to the Copernican view.