etherwraith - Dead Air
Dead Air

Mostly nothing, but every once in a while something will fill the void.

203 posts

Etherwraith - Dead Air

Since her death in 1979, the woman who discovered what the universe is made of has not so much as received a memorial plaque. Her newspaper obituaries do not mention her greatest discovery. […] Every high school student knows that Isaac Newton discovered gravity, that Charles Darwin discovered evolution, and that Albert Einstein discovered the relativity of time. But when it comes to the composition of our universe, the textbooks simply say that the most abundant atom in the universe is hydrogen. And no one ever wonders how we know.❞ — Jeremy Knowles, discussing the complete lack of recognition Cecilia Payne gets, even today, for her revolutionary discovery. (via alliterate)  OH WAIT LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT CECILIA PAYNE  • Cecilia Payne’s mother refused to spend money on her college education, so she won a scholarship to Cambridge.  • Cecilia Payne completed her studies, but Cambridge wouldn’t give her a degree because she was a woman, so she said to heck with that and moved to the United States to work at Harvard.  • Cecilia Payne was the first person ever to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe College, with what Otto Strauve called “the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy.”  • Not only did Cecilia Payne discover what the universe is made of, she also discovered what the sun is made of (Henry Norris Russell, a fellow astronomer, is usually given credit for discovering that the sun’s composition is different from the Earth’s, but he came to his conclusions four years later than Payne — after telling her not to publish).  • Cecilia Payne is the reason we know basically anything about variable stars (stars whose brightness as seen from earth fluctuates). Literally every other study on variable stars is based on her work.  • Cecilia Payne was the first woman to be promoted to full professor from within Harvard, and is often credited with breaking the glass ceiling for women in the Harvard science department and in astronomy, as well as inspiring entire generations of women to take up science.  • Cecilia Payne is awesome and everyone should know her.  (OP: Matthew Gardner)
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More Posts from Etherwraith

9 months ago

if whales are ungulates do they also have four chambered stomachs despite being carnivores

YUP THEY SURE DO

If Whales Are Ungulates Do They Also Have Four Chambered Stomachs Despite Being Carnivores

they use it for mashing up fish now but the design is pretty much the same

9 months ago

when I was younger I didn’t understand why “may you live in interesting times” was considered a curse in ancient greece.

I get it now.


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9 months ago

Absolutely cursed. I'm just glad they didn't include a picture of an aye-aye picking its nose in the wild. That long finger disappearing between those massive eyes to tickle its little brain would give me enough nightmares to last my lifetime and many years after I'm dead and buried. I really hope I forget about this post instead of remembering it every time I see an otherwise adorable aye-aye.

What aye-aye nose picking research paper

What Aye-aye Nose Picking Research Paper
What Aye-aye Nose Picking Research Paper

Just my favorite scientific rendering of all time


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10 months ago

“There’s a Japanese phrase that I like: koi no yokan. It doesn’t mean love at first sight. It’s closer to love at second sight. It’s the feeling when you meet someone that you’re going to fall in love with them. Maybe you don’t love them right away, but it’s inevitable that you will.”

— Nicola Yoon, The Sun Is Also a Star