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How a female astronomer broke barriers and made waves in astronomy with Jacqueline and Simon Mitton
Check out the book here https://amzn.to/3q9fEsZ
Interview Timeline
Jacqueline Mitton has published over thirty books on astronomy and is a past editor of the Journal of the British Astronomical Association. Simon Mitton is Life Fellow at St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge. He has written more than a dozen books on astronomy and the history of science and is Fellow and a former Vice-President of the Royal Astronomical Society. I spoke to them about their new book on famous astronomer Vera Rubin. Vera Rubin (Belknap Press, 2021)
(THE AUDIO PLAYER IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST.)
0:37 – Jacqueline talks about how she got into studying Vera Rubin.
3:57 – Simon talks about how he got into writing on Vera’s work.
8:37 – Simon talks about how he became interested in astronomy.
9:38 – Jacqueline talks about how she organized the biography.
14:18 – Simon talks about how science biographers usually approach their subjects.
15:31 – Jacqueline talks about the importance of conveying Vera as a person.
16:23 – Simon talks about Vera’s scientific discoveries.
18:06 – Jacqueline talks about Vera’s scientific interests.
18:30 – Simon talks about the material the universe is made of.
18:58 – Jacqueline talks about Vera’s interest in determining galaxy masses.
19:59 – Simon talks about Vera being an observational astronomer.
21:24 – Jacqueline talks about Vera’s measurements of galaxy rotation speeds.
22:44 – Simon talks about Vera’s results being a puzzle.
23:36 – Jacqueline talks about Vera not being first to find flat galaxy rotation curves.
27:50 – Simon talks about Vera having access to a better spectrograph than others.
29:08 – Jacqueline talks about Vera’s work after the Andromeda galaxy.
30:37 – Simon and Jacqueline talk about dark matter the stability of spiral galaxies.
35:15 – Simon talks about Vera’s interest in dark matter.
37:23 – Jacqueline talks about Vera’s feelings about physics.
41:37 – Jacqueline talks about how Vera broke down barriers for women.
44:42 – Jacqueline talks about when Vera realize she needed to stand up for women.
54:05 – Simon and Jacqueline talk about the archives they used for their research.
57:37 – Jacqueline and Simon talk about Vera’s correspondence with a Jesuit priest.
1:01:50 – Jacqueline and Simon talk about how surprised they were that some colleagues had thought Vera’s life might not be interesting.
1:13:18 – They can be found at totalastronomy.com
Links of interest
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674919198&content=reviews
Contact Information
For more “Technology and Space” please follow me at technologyandspace.com or www.spacewalksmoneytalks.com , on Facebook at Spacewalks Money Talks, on twitter at SpacewalksMT, on youtube at Spacewalks Money Talks , and on Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.
Guests: Jacqueline and Simon Mitton
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: Books, astronomy, audio interviews, space book, podcast, Belknap Press,
Check out the book here https://amzn.to/3q9fEsZ
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