Book description
A portrait of trailblazing astronomer Henrietta Leavitt and an illustrated exploration of the power of attention in scientific observation, artistic creation, and the making of meaning. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has a diameter of about 100,000 light years a figure we can calculate because of the work of HenriettaâŚ
Why read it?
1 author picked Attention Is Discovery as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I live in the world of words. This book plunged me delightfully into the world of imagesâphotographs of distant galaxies and of artworks inspired by those photographs. The subject of the book is the pioneering astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, whose patient, painstaking scrutiny of astronomical photographs at Harvard 100 years ago led her to discover the patterns in the behavior of Cepheid variable stars that opened the doors to the mapping of the universe.
The author of the book is Anna Von Mertens, a visual artist working with charcoal and textiles who juxtaposes the story of Leavittâs breakthrough, the work ofâŚ
From Michael's list on The best books that show how science really works.
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