


Maybe it’s because I’ve got two young daughters, but I’m continually amazed at how women in science during the last century often didn’t get the recognition they deserve.

Let’s consider Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, whom you’ve probably never heard of.

Back during the 1920s astronomers thought stars and galaxies were made of heavy elements, like those that make up Earth, iron, silicon and the like. In her thesis in 1925, Payne proposed that stars were made mostly of hydrogen. An adviser told her she was probably wrong, but the theory turned out to be correct, and it’s a key to understanding the evolution of stars, how they form and why they die. She would go on to become the first female professor at Harvard University.

It was a truly profound insight into the heavenly bodies that make up the vast majority of the known universe.

(Beware of Images/karaness)

(Beware of Images/karaness)

So why didn’t she get the credit she deserved? I’m certainly glad my daughters are coming of age in an enlightened century — in the western world at least.

Eric Berger