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

基本信息

Format:Hardback 320 pages, 58 photos

Publisher:Harvard University Press

Imprint:Harvard University Press

ISBN:9780674237377

Published:27 Mar 2020

Weight:510g

Dimensions:148 x 217 x 28 (mm)

頁面參數僅供參考，具體以實物為準

書籍簡介

在科學史上，女性的突破性發現幾乎沒有引起人們的注意。Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin就是其中之一，她是一位不知疲倦的創新者，正確地將恆星的物質理論化。Donovan Moore引人入勝、通俗易懂的傳記可以彌補這一缺憾。以二十世紀歐洲和美國動盪不安的社會歷史背景為襯托，這本書在天文學研究的“地球村”裏，巧妙地再現了佩恩的成就和奮鬥之旅。

在二十世紀早期的英國，做一個有抱負的女人是不容易的，更不用説當科學家了。Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin克服了種種障礙，成為了一名擁有許多“第一”的女性:第一個在拉德克里夫學院(Radcliffe College)獲得天文學博士學位，第一個被提升為哈佛大學(Harvard College)的全職教授，第一個在那裏領導一個系。在被稱為“天文學*出色的博士論文”中，她第一個描述了恆星是由什麼組成的。

Payne-Gaposchkin生活在一個不知道如何對待一個想知道一切的堅定的女學生的社會裏。她在大學裏被人嘲笑，並拒絕獲得學位。作為一名研究生，她面臨着可怕的懷疑。革命性的想法很少能立刻被接受，但是天文學的學者們發現她的想法尤其難以被認真對待。雖然在哈佛大學天文台受到歡迎，她工作多年卻沒有得到認可或地位。儘管如此，她還是完成了每個科學家都渴望的事情:發現。她揭示了恆星的原子組成，卻被那個後來證明她是正確的人告知她的結論是錯誤的。

在《恆星是由什麼構成的》一書中，多諾萬·摩爾通過大量的檔案研究、家庭訪談和照片，將這位非凡的女性栩栩如生地呈現出來。摩爾回顧了Payne-Gaposchkin的足跡，參觀了狹窄的觀景台，在夜間騎自行車穿過英國劍橋的街道。其結果是一個奉獻和堅韌的故事，有力地説明了我們自己的時代。

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.

目錄

Foreword [Jocelyn Bell Burnell]

Author’s Note

Prologue

I. Beginning: Wendover and London, 1900–1919

II. Preparing: Cambridge, 1919–1923

III. Discovery: Harvard, 1923–1979

Notes

Acknowledgments

Illustration Credits

Index

作者簡介

Donovan Moore has written for numerous newspapers and magazines, including the Boston Globe and Rolling Stone, and has worked as a television reporter and producer.