The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.97 (711 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0143111345 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-08-06 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Cindy B. (ThoughtsFromAPage) said The Glass Universe is a fantastic read. The Glass Universe meticulously delineates the previously little-known story about the contributions of a group of women hired by the Harvard College Observatory as “human computers” beginning in the mid-1800’s. While Dava Sobel at times employs incredible scientific detail while relaying these women’s stories, overall The Glass Universe is a fascinating tale of the impact of a multitu. Women (and men) who changed how we look at the universe Subtitled "How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars",Dava Sobel's new book widely covers the contributions and lives of the women of theobservatory during the directorships of Edward C. Pickering and Harlow Shapley, whilenot neglecting their male contemporaries. Between the 1880s and 1910s, Harvard CollegeObservatory under Pickering arguably contributed more to the advance of as. Eden Eskin said Women in astronomy. This well researched book came as a revelation to me about the many women to whom we owe our modern understanding of astronomy. Dava Sobel makes the individual women and men come alive on the page. She also writes so that the lay person gains a sense of the way discoveries were made and why they were important.
Wilson Literary Science Writing Award In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or “human computers,” to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. Elegantly written and enriched by excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, The Glass Universe is the hidden history of the women whose contributions to the burgeoning field of astronomy forever changed our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.. The “glass universe” of half a million plates that Harvard amassed over the ensuing decades—through the generous support of Mrs. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women's colleges—Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. Cecilia Helena Payne, who in 1956 became the first ever woman professor of astronomy at Harvard—and Harvard’s first female department chair. Their ranks included Williamina Fleming, a Scottish woman originally hired as a maid who went on to identify ten novae and more than three hundred variable stars; Annie Jump Cannon, who designed a stellar classification system that was adopted by astronomers the world over and is still in use; and Dr. Anna Palmer Draper, the widow of a pioneer in ste
DAVA SOBEL is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestsellers Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter,The Planets, and The Glass Universe. A former New York Times science reporter and longtime contributor to The New Yorker, Audubon, Discover, and Harvard Magazine, she is the recipient of the National Science Board’s Individual Public Service Award and the Boston Museum of Science’s Bradford Washburn Award, among others.From the Hardcover edition.
By the time I finished The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel's wonderful, meticulous account, it had moved me to tearsUnforgettable." —Sue Nelson, Nature"A compelling read and a welcome reminder that American women have long desired to reach for the stars.” —Bookpage"Sensitive, exacting, and lit with the wonder of discovery." —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction"This is intellectual history at its finest. A splendid and enticing book." —San Francisco Chronicle"An incantatory serenade to the Solar System." —Entertainment WeeklyPraise for Galileo's Daughter"Sobel is a master storyteller. Named one of the b