The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars

Meribeth Meixner Reed, PhD6 June 2017Sobel, Dava. (2016). The Glass Universe: How the ladies of the Harvard Observatory took the measure of the stars. New York, NY: Viking.Women's expeditions into advanced mathematics and science are not the same as men's. That was notoriously true in 19th and 20th century America, as gate-keepers protecting the realm of men (while ostensibly and disingenuously protecting the fairer sex) unapologetically denied gender equality. Recall that before 1920, women in most of the US did not have the right to vote.Glass Universe is an important women's history overlaid on a history of astronomy and astrophysics. The title refers to the half million glass photographic plates on which stellar observations were recorded, and the subtitle reveals the subject of Dava Sobel's exploration, developed through a series of biographies. A chronologic approach was taken, focusing on several key players with a large supporting cast, while the observatory is the stage.Award-winning science writer Sobel introduces a cadre of astronomers previously known to few of us, although their discoveries and taxonomies are fundamental today. I am a fan because I have enjoyed Sobel's Longitude and Galileo's Daughter many times each. Her research is rigorous, and she treats her subject astronomers with admiration and love, describing women pioneers in photography; spectroscopy; stellar origins, evolution, and chemistry; and astrophysics. Positions of primacy are given to Williamina Fleming (1857-1911), who devised a classification scheme for stars and discovered more than 300 variable stars; and Antonia Maury (1866-1952), whose enhanced spectral classification scheme based on improvements in photography distinguished between giant and dwarf stars, and who identified spectroscopic binaries.Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921) established a system to measure distances across space based on the brightness of stars, and her co-worker of two decades, Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941) classified and cataloged the light spectra of hundreds of thousands of stars. Cannon also mentored Cecilia Payne (Gaposchkin)(1900-1979), who revealed the physical and chemical nature of stars, the articulation of physics and astronomy, or astrophysics. Hers was the first PhD in Astronomy conferred by Harvard/Radcliffe (1925). Heiresses Anna Palmer Draper (1839-1914) and Catherine Wolfe Bruce (1816-1900) also advanced astronomy as generous benefactors.Reading this book required three and four bookmarks. The text is 323 pages, including bibliography and index. There is so much information -- unwrapping the life stories of many astronomers -- that I frequently flipped back and forth between sections to help me distinguish between individuals. An extensive timeline is concealed under the title Highlights of the Observatory (pp. 273-279), and that was important to bookmark, as is the alphabetic catalog of astronomers and others (pp. 285-292), and the glossary located between them. Six color photos are centered in the book, which includes 20 pictures of the visionaries. But the unconventional lack of scholarly references and citations is not explained, despite the wide use of quotations, and it is not clear why the academic title Dr. was so seldom and inconsistently used.Through this book, Sobel opened a new universe for me, sending me searching for more information on these fascinating women of science. These astronomers who changed our understanding of the universe demonstrated resilience in the face of denied academic degrees, titles, awards, positions, and reasonable pay based explicitly on their gender, even as they published seminal works in the science.Like artists, scientists pursue original thoughts and intellectual challenges. The interpretation of findings and written expression are steps in a solitary creative endeavor. They must have great faith in those to whom they reveal and entrust their discoveries. I imagine these pioneers created a supportive environment for each other, a privileged sisterhood, enabling them to retain their unique positions in the observatory and the academy, fully aware that most women were denied access to such work and study. And they were probably not surprised when others took credit for their work. Yet the women remained committed to expanding, generating, and then sharing knowledge. They were as brilliant as the stars they were measuring in as many dimensions.

This is a well researched depiction of the history of the observatory program at Harvard University at the turn of the 20th century with an emphasis on the role played by women in the research and scholarly publications by the university. Written in a conversational style and aimed at general readers, this is an engaging story of clues and discoveries made possible by the ambitious astro photographic efforts of the Harvard Observatories and the contributions made by "computers" primarily women who examined, measured and cataloged the glass plate astro photographs, hence the title "Glass Universe". In so doing, critical understandings and the organization of astronomical knowledge became the foundation for astrophysical discoveries made at Harvard and at other observatories including Mt. Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, CA. This book can be particularly enlightening to high school age readers who are interested in discovering role models for women in science.

This was a fantastic book about the early days of astronomy and the importance of Harvard University in many, many discoveries that led to understanding the stars and galaxies in the sky. Highly recommended!!!!

The Glass Universe tells the thrilling (yes, I'm using that term advisedly) story of how women drove some of the major advances in the science of astronomy. Today, we believe we know the age of the universe (13.7 billion years, plus or minus 100 million), the size of the universe, and the contents and theory of how the stars shine. The women of the Harvard Observatory, among others, helped us find these answers.In a time where science was dominated by men, and women had no place, astronomy was different. Women worked as computers, a name for people who computed rather than the machine we use today, though a better description of their work may have been analysts. They examined photographic plates produced by the large telescopes operated by Harvard and measured position, brightness, and variability. Henrietta Swan Leavitt deduced during her examination of plates of the Magellanic Clouds that a variable star's (a star that vary their brightness over time) intrinsic brightness is related to its period (the time it takes for the star to come to full brightness, fade, and return to full brightness). This one insight allowed astronomers to measure distances to the stars, and thereby begin the process of measuring the whole of the observable universe.Anyone interested in the history of women in science would enjoy this thoroughly researched, and lyrical work by Dava Sobel. Any young woman interested in a career in science would be inspired by it. For the rest of us, this is an upbeat, insightful, and hopeful work that shows the work of exploration is not just for the boys anymore.

Perhaps Dava Sobel was attempting to create the atmosphere of 1900 by always referring to the women who worked at the Harvard observatory as "ladies" and always referring to the individual women as Miss X or Mrs. Y. If so, she badly failed, and only succeeded in irritating the reader by treating the women as if their only meaningful identity was that of an unmarried daughter or as a wife (or widow). The science is very thin, a surface covering of descriptions without scientific depth. For example, she repeatedly mentions that the spectra of stars reflect their chemical composition, and mentions hydrogen or helium or sodium lines, by doesn't even make an attempt to explain why the different elements give rise to the lines they do or how the elements are inferred from their spectra. For me, the book was without any building tension, without excitement, without scientific depth, and, amazingly, without conveying the personalities of the women. They are cardboard figures, unknown to the reader, much as was Galileo's daughter in the eponymous book. I won't read Dava Sobel again.

Fascinating story (just as Longitude…) very well told. Ms Sobel is a fine storyteller.

This book is very well researched and very informative. For anyone with connections to any of the people mentioned or for people interested in the history of astronomy and the contributions of brilliant women, this book is for you,

Nice book

O livro chegou em ótimo estado, bem protegido, bem embalado. Este é um livro excelente para quem está interessado em conhecer um pouco mais sobre a história da física. Super indicado!!

These ladies weren't men's equals, they were superior, pioneering scientific advances into the realm of the new astronomical knowledge of the Universe. Great and easy read.