Evaluate: How Henrietta Leavitt and the ‘Harvard Computers’ Launched Fashionable Cosmology

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Evaluate: How a Group of Ladies Launched Fashionable Cosmology

A brand new biography of astronomer Henrietta Leavitt celebrates which means making in science


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In Temporary

Consideration Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt
by Anna Von Mertens.
MIT Press, 2024 ($34.95)

Followers of Hidden Figures and The Glass Universe will admire Anna Von Mertens’s charming portrait of Henrietta Leavitt and the Harvard Computer systems, who laid the muse for contemporary cosmology on the flip of the twentieth century. Mixing advanced science with human-interest tales, Von Mertens celebrates the constellation of ladies scientists who found the best way to calculate galactic distances and classify stars by chemical composition. The writing sometimes veers into textbook territory, however Von Mertens in­cludes vibrant illustrations and archival paperwork that assist to carry these astronomical legends to life on the web page. This deeply researched guide is in the end an homage to the method of statement and which means making in science.

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