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Dava Sobel: The Glass Universe

2,802 views · Published 29 November 2017 · 55:38 · Indexed 6 November 2026

Channel: Chicago Humanities · 2017 · Nonprofits & Activism

In the mid-19th century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as “human computers” to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the women turned to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates. The “glass universe” of a half a million plates that Harvard amassed enabled the women to make extraordinary discoveries. Renowned science writer Dava Sobel ("Longitude', 'Galileo's Daughter') comes to CHF to tell the little-known true story of this group of remarkable women whose work forever changed our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.

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