Vera Rubin
A Life
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٤٫٠ - ٢ من التقييمات
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- 29٫99 US$
وصف الناشر
A Physics Today Best Book of the Year
The first biography of a pioneering scientist who made significant contributions to our understanding of dark matter and championed the advancement of women in science.
One of the great lingering mysteries of the universe is dark matter. Scientists are not sure what it is, but most believe it’s out there, and in abundance. The astronomer who finally convinced many of them was Vera Rubin. When Rubin died in 2016, she was regarded as one of the most influential astronomers of her era. Her research on the rotation of spiral galaxies was groundbreaking, and her observations contributed significantly to the confirmation of dark matter, a most notable achievement.
In Vera Rubin: A Life, prolific science writers Jacqueline Mitton and Simon Mitton provide a detailed, accessible overview of Rubin’s work, showing how she leveraged immense curiosity, profound intelligence, and novel technologies to help transform our understanding of the cosmos. But Rubin’s impact was not limited to her contributions to scientific knowledge. She also helped to transform scientific practice by promoting the careers of women researchers. Not content to be an inspiration, Rubin was a mentor and a champion. She advocated for hiring women faculty, inviting women speakers to major conferences, and honoring women with awards that were historically the exclusive province of men.
Rubin’s papers and correspondence yield vivid insights into her life and work, as she faced down gender discrimination and met the demands of family and research throughout a long and influential career. Deftly written, with both scientific experts and general readers in mind, Vera Rubin is a portrait of a woman with insatiable curiosity about the universe who never stopped asking questions and encouraging other women to do the same.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Married astronomers Jacqueline and Simon Mitton offer a vivid biography of trailblazing astronomer Vera Rubin (1928–2016). Rubin's work in the 1950s fueled discoveries in cosmology, extragalactic astronomy, and the mystery of dark matter, and opened the field to women scientists. The younger of two daughters in a close-knit Jewish family, Rubin was "naturally curious and observant" and fascinated by the stars. Despite a high school physics class run like "a big macho boys' club," Rubin earned a scholarship to Vassar College, where women held "the highest faculty positions in astronomy" and "the concept of women astronomers was normal." In fellow physics student Bob Rubin, whom she married, Rubin found a partner who supported her professional choices as their family grew. Rubin's master's thesis, a study of the rotation rates of spiral galaxies, set the stage for her later work, which delivered data indicating dark matter must exist. The authors present an accessible and concise history of modern astrophysics alongside the biography, which brims with insight into Rubin's commitment to getting more women into astronomy and her deep fascination with the mysteries of the universe. Stargazers will be delighted by this spirited account.
مراجعات العملاء
There’s a better book on this subject.
I bought this book by accident, mistakenly thinking I was getting the biography of Rubin by Ashley Jean Yeager, who wrote an article about Rubin in Scientific American News (6/2025). After slogging through a couple of chapters, learning that I needed to skim many dreary details of family logistics about how to juggle family, career, and sexism, I decided to try Yeager’s book. For me, Yeager’s book is much better— more on the point, and teaching better the history of ideas that resulted in Rubin’s accomplishments. I’m only through two chapters of Yeager’s book, and four chapters of this one, but it will be hard to come back here. If you want more science, taught better, and less domestic detail, try Yeager’s version.