Agnes Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics

ISBN-13: 9780521808446 / Angielski / Twarda / 2002 / 286 str.

Mary Bruck

Opis

Born in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century, Agnes Mary Clerke achieved fame as the author of A History of Astronomy during the nineteenth century. Through her quarter-century career, she became the leading commentator on astronomy and astrophysics in the English-speaking world. This biography describes not only the life and work of this extraordinary woman, but also chronicles the development of astronomy in the last decades of pre-Einstein science. Along the way, it introduces many of the great figures in astronomy of that age, including Huggins, Lockyer, Holden, and Pickering.

Recenzje

'… a detailed, scholarly, and thorough account of both the life and the work of relatively unknown Irish woman of science.' Choice

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Family background in County Cork; 2. Ireland and Italy; 3. London, the literary scene; 4. The History of Astronomy; 5. A circle of astronomers; 6. A visit to South Africa; 7. The System of the Stars; 8. Social life in scientific circles; 9. Homer, the Herschels and a revised History; 10. The opinion moulder; 11. Popularisation, cryogenics and evolution; 12. Problems in Astrophysics; 13. Women in astronomy in Britain in Agnes Clerke's time; 14. Revised System of the Stars; 15. Cosmogonies, cosmology and Nature's spiritual clues; 16. Last days and retrospect; 17. Epilogue; Notes; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.