These computers were often women, because women were so much cheaper to hire. In the early years of the 20th century, a "computer" was a person, an actual flesh and blood human being, who was good at math. I would have rather had an interestingly written book discussing women in astronomy where Leavitt and her important contributions comprised a solid chapter or two than to have her story stretched out well beyond what is known about her. True, the topic is interesting, but it's not what I was hoping for with this book. At times felt like I read more about some of the men involved and all of their arguments than about Leavitt. Rather it is primarily about the changes and developments in astronomy in the first few decades of the twentieth century. This book did have something do do with Leavitt and her discovery along with her other work, but much of it really isn't about her. There is no trove of letters, no diary or journal she left behind, very few photos. That said, as Johnson admits, there is virtually nothing known about Leavitt-who she really was, what she thought, etc. But the writing wasn't anything spectacular-for a while I thought this might be three stars, but I just didn't like this much, so that would be dishonest. I am all for women in science, and even more for overlooked women to be recognized and learned about it I was finding material for my daughters to learn about women like Henrietta Leavitt before this became so popular. I felt a little disappointed that there was not more information about the woman who's cited in the title of this book.ĭisappointing is probably the best word to choose for how I felt when reading this book. Henrietta published her findings in 1912, and this work was then used by other astronomers, such as Edwin Hubble.Īs there is so little documented about Henrietta Levitt, much of this book is actually devoted to a short history of a small part of astronomy. These are massive stars that pulsate predictably, and whose luminosity can be used to measure the distance to other objects ( this brief article explains it better). Though plagued by illness for much of her professional life, by all accounts she was meticulous and thorough, and her painstaking work led her to define a measurement method using Cepheid variable stars. Henrietta Leavitt analyzed countless photographic plates of images taken by telescopes, and carefully analyzed the differences in brightness of many stars. But, the author of the biography said there were hardly any personal papers left behind by the woman, who worked as a human computer at Harvard many years ago. I picked this up, thinking I'd get to find out all about Henrietta Swan Leavitt.
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