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Time of India
4 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
She worked at Harvard for 30 cents an hour, her work shaped our understanding of the universe, but never won a Nobel Prize
Henrietta Swan Leavitt , an American astronomer whose groundbreaking discovery revolutionized how we measure the cosmos. Born in 1868, Leavitt began working at the Harvard College Observatory at a time when women were excluded from operating telescopes and instead employed as 'computers' to analyze astronomical data. Despite earning just 30 cents an hour, her dedication and meticulous research led to one of the most important astronomical breakthroughs of the 20th century. In 1908, Leavitt discovered the period-luminosity relationship of Cepheid variable stars , showing a direct link between their brightness and pulsation period. This discovery became the key to measuring vast cosmic distances and ultimately helped astronomers like Edwin Hubble prove that the universe is expanding. Yet, despite her monumental contributions, Leavitt was never awarded a Nobel Prize during her lifetime. The discovery that changed astronomy forever Leavitt's key insight came from studying Cepheid variable stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy assumed to be at a uniform distance from Earth. By carefully analyzing photographic plates, she found that the brightness of these stars varied in a predictable way tied to their pulsation period: the longer the period, the brighter the star. This relationship, now known as Leavitt's Law, gave astronomers a powerful 'standard candle,' an object of known brightness that can be used to calculate distances in space. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Are you Smarter than Average? Test Now! Try Now Undo Using this standard candle method, astronomers could measure how far away these stars and by extension, the galaxies they reside in actually were. This was a breakthrough in cosmic distance measurement, allowing scientists to determine the scale of the universe with unprecedented accuracy. Leavitt's discovery became the foundation for Edwin Hubble's later work in the 1920s where he used Cepheid variables to prove that the Milky Way was just one of many galaxies and that the universe itself was expanding. Overcoming barriers as a woman in science Henrietta Swan Leavitt's career unfolded during a time when women faced serious discrimination in science. Women were largely relegated to supportive roles and denied opportunities such as telescope operation and academic recognition. Leavitt was paid a modest wage of about 30 cents an hour as a 'computer' at Harvard, tasked with analyzing star data rather than conducting independent research. Despite these limitations, she showed extraordinary focus and persistence. Leavitt's progressive hearing loss later in life made her work even more challenging, yet she continued her observations and calculations until her untimely death at the age of 53. Tragically, although her work was foundational for modern astronomy, she never received the Nobel Prize or equivalent accolades during her lifetime, and a posthumous nomination was not permitted. Legacy and lasting impact on cosmology Leavitt's period-luminosity relationship remains one of the cornerstones of astrophysics. It revolutionized the way distances to faraway celestial objects are measured, enabling astronomers to map the universe on a grand scale. This method underpins modern cosmology, helping scientists determine not only distances but also the rate at which the universe is expanding, key to the Big Bang theory. Edwin Hubble famously used Leavitt's discovery to measure the distances to galaxies beyond the Milky Way and uncover the expanding nature of the universe, a milestone that forever changed humanity's understanding of our place in the cosmos. Today, Henrietta Swan Leavitt is celebrated as a pioneering figure in astronomy whose brilliance and perseverance overcame societal and physical obstacles, leaving a profound legacy that continues to guide scientific exploration.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
She worked with Edwin Hubble at Harvard for 30 cents an hour and shaped the view of universe as we know it, yet never won a Nobel Prize
A Human Computer with a Cosmic Vision — Harvard (@Harvard) The Law That Measured the Cosmos The Men Who Built Upon Her Work Legacy Among the Stars More than a century ago, in a quiet corner of the Harvard College Observatory , a woman sat for hours examining tiny specks on glass photographic plates. These dots, captured from the night sky, would reveal a secret so profound that it would transform our understanding of the cosmos. Her name was Henrietta Swan Leavitt , and she uncovered a way to measure the universe despite her groundbreaking discovery, the Nobel Prize she deserved slipped away—not because her work went unnoticed, but because she was no longer alive when the world was ready to honor a Radcliffe College graduate, joined the Harvard Observatory in the late 19th century as a 'human computer,' part of an all-female team tasked with cataloging stars. At the time, women were rarely given credit for their scientific contributions. Leavitt earned just 30 cents an hour, equivalent to about $10 today, and her role was considered clerical rather than she was more than a diligent measurer of star brightness. While studying thousands of images from the Small Magellanic Cloud, she spotted a pattern in a type of pulsating star known as a Cepheid 1912 paper in the Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College revealed what would later be called Leavitt's Law—a precise relationship between a Cepheid star's brightness and the length of time it took to complete a cycle of dimming and 'period-luminosity relationship' became the first reliable cosmic yardstick, allowing astronomers to determine distances to faraway galaxies. As science writer Jeremy Bernstein noted in his review of her work, Leavitt's insight shifted astronomy from a flat, two-dimensional map to a vast, three-dimensional method was soon used by astronomer Edwin Hubble , who applied it to prove that the Andromeda Nebula was, in fact, another galaxy far beyond the Milky Way. This breakthrough ended astronomy's long-standing 'Great Debate' over the scale of the universe and laid the foundation for Hubble's later proof that the cosmos is himself admitted that his achievements were made possible by Leavitt's earlier findings. Mathematician Gösta Mittag-Leffler even tried to nominate her for a Nobel Prize in 1925—only to learn she had died of cancer three years earlier. The Nobel Committee does not award posthumous influence reaches far beyond her lifetime. Cepheid variables remain a critical tool for measuring cosmic distances, and her work underpins much of modern astronomy's understanding of the universe's is honored today with a lunar crater, an asteroid, and even a telescope bearing her name. Yet her story is also a reminder of how history often delays recognition for trailblazing women in science Henrietta Swan Leavitt once calculated the distance to the stars. Now, a century later, the world is still calculating the distance to the recognition she deserved.
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Deaf women fought for the right to vote
If Susan B. Anthony had a deaf sister, everyone would know that deaf suffragists fought tirelessly for expanding women's right to vote, right alongside Anthony herself. Everyone would know deaf suffragists contributed to women's emancipation in the United States and Britain and that they lived bold lives. As a researcher of deaf history, including deaf women's history, I work to illuminate the often hidden history of deaf people and their unique contributions to the world. I have unearthed historical information about deaf women suffragists and assembled it into an online collection chronicling what is known – so far – about these women and their lives. Despite harsh, discriminatory conditions, low pay and lack of recognition, countless deaf women have fought with brilliance and dedication for personal and professional recognition, including for the right to vote. Annie Jump Cannon was a pioneering astronomer. Born in 1863, she experienced progressive hearing loss starting at a young age. One of the first women from Delaware to attend college, she was her class valedictorian when she graduated from Wellesley College, where she excelled in the sciences and mathematics. In 1896, she was hired as a 'woman computer' at the Harvard College Observatory, along with another prominent deaf astronomer, Henrietta Swan Leavitt. The work involved looking at photos of stars and calculating their brightness, position and color. The two were paid between 25 and 50 cents an hour – half the rate paid to men doing similar work. Nevertheless, Cannon is credited with cataloging 350,000 stars. Building on others' work, Cannon revolutionized and refined a system to rank stars from hottest to coolest that is still used today by the International Astronomical Union, though it is named for Harvard, not for her. Cannon was a member of the National Woman's Party, formed in 1916 to advocate for passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, allowing women to vote. Cannon's suffragist efforts used her profession as a launchpad, as when she declared that 'if women can organize the sky, we can organize the vote.' She used her prominence to pave the way for women in the sciences, becoming the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Oxford University in 1925, and facing down eugenicists who blocked her from joining the National Academy of Sciences because she was deaf. In 1938, after 40 years of service, her role as 'the dean of women astronomers' finally earned her a permanent faculty position at Harvard, where she worked until her death three years later. A lunar crater, Cannon, and an asteroid, Cannonia, are named for her. British deaf suffragist Helen K. Watts, born in 1881, was a militant member of the radical Women's Social and Political Union who demonstrated at Parliament in 1909 for the women's vote. After one protest that year, she was arrested and imprisoned – but began a 90-hour hunger strike that resulted in her release. As she left, she declared: 'The Suffragettes have come out of the drawing-room, the study and the debating hall, and the committee rooms of Members of Parliament, to appeal to the real sovereign power of the country – the people.' In 1913, she left the more violent group and joined the nonviolent Women's Freedom League, also seeking women's right to vote. One of her sister leaders in the Women's Freedom League was British deaf suffragist Kate Harvey. Harvey believed in not paying taxes until women were granted the vote – which resulted in authorities breaking into her home to arrest and imprison her in 1913. Laura Redden Searing, born in 1840, was a gifted American poet, newspaper reporter and writer – often using the male pseudonym Howard Glyndon so her work would be taken more seriously. Deafened by illness as a child, she entered the Missouri School for the Deaf when she was 15 years old and learned sign language, graduating in 1858, writing an address and 'farewell poem' that was published in the American Annals of the Deaf. When communicating with nonsigners, she wrote with a pencil and pad – with which she conducted countless interviews over many years as a reporter and writer. In 1860, Searing became the earliest deaf woman journalist, writing for the St. Louis Republican, whose editors sent her to Washington in September 1861. There, she cultivated friendships with prominent leaders and interviewed Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, soldiers on the battlefield, and President Abraham Lincoln. She also met future Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth, and taught him fingerspelling, a manual alphabet that is used in sign language. When the Civil War ended in 1865, she traveled to Europe and picked up reading and writing in French, German, Spanish and Italian. She continued writing news stories for the St. Louis Republican and The New York Times. Returning to the United States in 1870, Searing wrote on a wide variety of topics for the New York Evening Mail and other newspapers and magazines. Searing had a literary circle of admiring friends who supported her work. She also contributed articles and poems to the popular national Silent Worker newspaper, published by the New Jersey School for the Deaf. [More than 150,000 readers get one of The Conversation's informative newsletters. Join the list today.] She was a feminist who wrote about women's issues such as unequal pay and women's sexuality. She also explained her support for an 1872 campaign for women's right to vote with an analogy to the freeing of the slaves after the Civil War: 'I believe I am called upon to sign this petition in conformation with that clause of our constitution which recognizes the equal rights of all human beings of lawful age and sound mind without regard to sex, color, or social condition. Having decided that black people do not belong to white ones, why not go a step farther and decide that women do not belong to men unless the proprietorship be recognized as mutual?' In 1981, Searing was dubbed 'the first deaf women's libber' by Robert F. Panara, the first deaf professor of Deaf Studies at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, because of her pioneering work in the journalism field and her fierce independence as a woman who did not accept restrictions, nor follow expected traditions. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Joan Marie Naturale, Rochester Institute of Technology Read more: When lesbians led the women's suffrage movement 19 facts about the 19th Amendment on its 100th anniversary How white became the color of suffrage Joan Marie Naturale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
