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)

页面参数仅供参考，具体以实物为准

书籍简介

在科学史上，女性的突破性发现几乎没有引起人们的注意。Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin就是其中之一，她是一位不知疲倦的创新者，正确地将恒星的物质理论化。Donovan Moore引人入胜、通俗易懂的传记可以弥补这一缺憾。以二十世纪欧洲和美国动荡不安的社会历史背景为衬托，这本书在天文学研究的“地球村”里，巧妙地再现了佩恩的成就和奋斗之旅。

在二十世纪早期的英国，做一个有抱负的女人是不容易的，更不用说当科学家了。Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin克服了种种障碍，成为了一名拥有许多“第一”的女性:第一个在拉德克里夫学院(Radcliffe College)获得天文学博士学位，第一个被提升为哈佛大学(Harvard College)的全职教授，第一个在那里领导一个系。在被称为“天文学史上最出色的博士论文”中，她第一个描述了恒星是由什么组成的。

Payne-Gaposchkin生活在一个不知道如何对待一个想知道一切的坚定的女学生的社会里。她在大学里被人嘲笑，并拒绝获得学位。作为一名研究生，她面临着可怕的怀疑。革命性的想法很少能立刻被接受，但是天文学的学者们发现她的想法尤其难以被认真对待。虽然在哈佛大学天文台受到欢迎，她工作多年却没有得到认可或地位。尽管如此，她还是完成了每个科学家都渴望的事情:发现。她揭示了恒星的原子组成，却被那个后来证明她是正确的人告知她的结论是错误的。

在《恒星是由什么构成的》一书中，多诺万·摩尔通过大量的档案研究、家庭访谈和照片，将这位非凡的女性栩栩如生地呈现出来。摩尔回顾了Payne-Gaposchkin的足迹，参观了狭窄的观景台，在夜间骑自行车穿过英国剑桥的街道。其结果是一个奉献和坚韧的故事，有力地说明了我们自己的时代。

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.

目录

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

作者简介

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.