Book ID: CBB733596717

What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (2020)

unapi

Moore, Donovan (Author)
Burnell, Jocelyn Bell (Contributor)


Harvard University Press


Publication Date: 2020
Physical Details: 320
Language: English

A New Scientist Book of the Year A Physics Today Book of the Year A Science News Book of the Year The history of science is replete with women getting little notice for their groundbreaking discoveries. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, a tireless innovator who correctly theorized the substance of stars, was one of them. It was not easy being a woman of ambition in early twentieth-century England, much less one who wished to be a scientist. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin overcame prodigious obstacles to become a woman of many firsts: the first to receive a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College, the first promoted to full professor at Harvard, the first to head a department there. And, in what has been called “the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy,” she was the first to describe what stars are made of. Payne-Gaposchkin lived in a society that did not know what to make of a determined schoolgirl who wanted to know everything. She was derided in college and refused a degree. As a graduate student, she faced formidable skepticism. Revolutionary ideas rarely enjoy instantaneous acceptance, but the learned men of the astronomical community found hers especially hard to take seriously. Though welcomed at the Harvard College Observatory, she worked for years without recognition or status. Still, she accomplished what every scientist yearns for: discovery. She revealed the atomic composition of stars―only to be told that her conclusions were wrong by the very man who would later show her to be correct. In What Stars Are Made Of, Donovan Moore brings this remarkable woman to life through extensive archival research, family interviews, and photographs. Moore retraces Payne-Gaposchkin’s steps with visits to cramped observatories and nighttime bicycle rides through the streets of Cambridge, England. The result is a story of devotion and tenacity that speaks powerfully to our own time.

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Review David Whelan (2021) Review of "What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin". Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage (pp. 230-233). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB733596717/

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Authors & Contributors
Gingerich, Owen
Lindsay Smith Zrull
Petrovay, Kristóf
Jeremy J. D. Greenwood
Collins, Paul
Woodman, Jennifer Elizabeth
Concepts
Astronomy
Biographies
Women in science
Stars; stellar astronomy
Science and gender
Astrophysics
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
17th century
16th century
Places
England
Oregon (U.S.)
United States
Canada
Australia
Massachusetts (U.S.)
Institutions
Harvard College Observatory
Harvard University
British Ornithologists' Union (BOU)
Royal Society of London
Linnean Society of London
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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