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Happy birthday to Dr. Cecilia Payne! Her 1925 PhD thesis has been described as “the most brilliant ever written in astronomy.”

At a time when few women entered academia, Payne discovered what the universe is made of. Her work began a revolution in astrophysics & more should know her name. #science #history

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Thank you for sharing this! I took a look at her Wikipedia entry and it looks like Russell stole all the credit for her work when developing the H-R diagram?? All too common in the history of science. Thank you for illuminating this for me! 🙂

ETA: Looks as though Russell did cite her research quite extensively, but isn't remembered for her contributions as much as she should be

This entry was edited (6 months ago)

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