August 20, 2024
1 min read
Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAmReview: How a Group of Women Launched Modern Cosmology
A new biography of astronomer Henrietta Leavitt celebrates meaning making in science
By Lucy Tu edited by Jen Schwartz
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
In Brief
Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt
by Anna Von Mertens.
MIT Press, 2024 ($34.95)
Fans of Hidden Figures and The Glass Universe will appreciate Anna Von Mertens’s captivating portrait of Henrietta Leavitt and the Harvard Computers, who laid the foundation for modern cosmology at the turn of the 20th century. Blending complex science with human-interest stories, Von Mertens celebrates the constellation of women scientists who discovered how to calculate galactic distances and classify stars by chemical composition. The writing occasionally veers into textbook territory, but Von Mertens includes vibrant illustrations and archival documents that help to bring these astronomical legends to life on the page. This deeply researched book is ultimately an homage to the process of observation and meaning making in science.
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
