1 00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Cecilia Payne later Cecilia Paine Gaposhkin was born 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:09,920 Speaker 1: May tenth, nineteen hundred or one hundred and twenty five 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:13,080 Speaker 1: years ago today if you're listening to this episode on 4 00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:16,919 Speaker 1: the day it comes out. She made truly revolutionary discoveries 5 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:20,120 Speaker 1: about the chemical makeup of stars, and she's really one 6 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:23,080 Speaker 1: of my favorite people I've ever learned about on this show. 7 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:26,439 Speaker 2: Our episode on her originally came out on November ninth, 8 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:33,000 Speaker 2: twenty twenty. Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, 9 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:43,280 Speaker 2: a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and Welcome to the podcast. 10 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. 11 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:47,519 Speaker 2: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. A couple of months ago. 12 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:50,720 Speaker 1: We got a pile of listener requests for an episode 13 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:54,639 Speaker 1: on Cecilia Payne Gaposhkin. She was an astronomer who made 14 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: a lot of firsts, including being the first person to 15 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:02,120 Speaker 1: figure out that stars are made of mostly hydrogen and helium. 16 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:05,080 Speaker 1: Usually when we get a whole bunch of listener requests, 17 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:08,000 Speaker 1: one right after the other, I can figure out what 18 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:11,120 Speaker 1: prompted them, like usually there was a Google doodle, or 19 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:15,120 Speaker 1: there's a viral post that's circulating around this time. It 20 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:17,320 Speaker 1: was kind of a mystery because there is a new 21 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:21,360 Speaker 1: biography that came out earlier this year, which is Donovan 22 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 1: Moore's What Stars Are Made Of, which is beautiful. 23 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:25,520 Speaker 2: I recommend it. 24 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 1: And there have been some viral posts, but none of 25 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:34,680 Speaker 1: this lined up with when we got this file of requests. 26 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:37,760 Speaker 1: And then on top of that, when I tried to 27 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:40,080 Speaker 1: go through our inbox so I could make a list 28 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:42,119 Speaker 1: of all the listeners that I wanted to thank here 29 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:45,760 Speaker 1: at the top of the episode, I found nothing. Zero emails. 30 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,120 Speaker 1: I remember them coming in, yet I could not find them. 31 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 1: Honestly though, this feels like just a mysterious gift from 32 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 1: the universe, because by the time I got to this 33 00:01:55,920 --> 00:01:57,559 Speaker 1: end of the research for this, I. 34 00:01:57,640 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 2: Just loved Celia Paynekubashkin. 35 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:03,080 Speaker 1: I don't love the sexism she faced that we're going 36 00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:06,840 Speaker 1: to talk about, but like her whole story I really 37 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:10,200 Speaker 1: delighted in She grew up in a society that just 38 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:15,519 Speaker 1: did not prioritize education for girls and that regarded women's 39 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:20,840 Speaker 1: academic ambitions as suspect. But her determination and her creativity 40 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:24,560 Speaker 1: at getting around that just was so delightful to me. 41 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:26,840 Speaker 1: So that's what we're going to talk about today. So 42 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:30,200 Speaker 1: Cecilia Payne was born in Wendover, England, on May tenth, 43 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,320 Speaker 1: nineteen hundred. Her father, Edward was a barrister and a historian, 44 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:37,720 Speaker 1: and her mother, Emma, was an artist. Cecilia was the 45 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:40,400 Speaker 1: oldest of Edward and Emma's children, with a younger brother, 46 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: Humphrey and a sister, Leonora. From a very early age, 47 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:48,160 Speaker 1: Cecilia was curious and imaginative, with a keen memory and 48 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:52,840 Speaker 1: sharp observation. Their home was full of music, art and literature, 49 00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: and they had a large library. They were a pretty 50 00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: comfortable middle class family. They had enough money to afford 51 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:02,720 Speaker 1: house hold help, and that allowed Emma to keep working 52 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:05,320 Speaker 1: as an art copyist even when her children were still 53 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:09,320 Speaker 1: really small. But that changed after Edward's sudden death when 54 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:14,000 Speaker 1: Cecilia was four. Edward had married Emma somewhat later in life, 55 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:16,560 Speaker 1: and he died the day after Christmas nineteen oh four, 56 00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:17,840 Speaker 1: at the age of sixty. 57 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 2: His body was. 58 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:23,080 Speaker 1: Found in a river where he had apparently drowned. He 59 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: had been experiencing some heart trouble and some dizziness, which 60 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:29,200 Speaker 1: may have contributed to his death, but it's just not 61 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:30,800 Speaker 1: clear exactly what happened. 62 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 2: Although Emma received a widow stipend after Edward's death, it 63 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:37,880 Speaker 2: really didn't match what his income had been, and money 64 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:41,520 Speaker 2: was a lot tighter. Even so, Emma tried to make 65 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:44,520 Speaker 2: sure that her children were immersed in culture. She would 66 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:47,800 Speaker 2: scrape together enough to travel and attend concerts and go 67 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:52,840 Speaker 2: to museums. The children's upbringing also wasn't always conventional. When 68 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:55,840 Speaker 2: Cecilia asked for a bedtime story, her mother read her 69 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 2: The Odyssey. When Emma decided Cecilia was too old for stories, 70 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,960 Speaker 2: Cecilia started by telling herself stories at bedtime, before moving 71 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 2: on to making up bedtime stories for her younger sister, 72 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:10,600 Speaker 2: ohth Cecilia was really bright and driven to learn. When 73 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:13,960 Speaker 2: she started school, she had some struggles the teachers at 74 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:16,280 Speaker 2: the little school across the street from their home, which 75 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:19,919 Speaker 2: she was attending. They encouraged her, but Cecilia was also 76 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:22,240 Speaker 2: left handed, and they taught her to write with her 77 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:26,000 Speaker 2: right hand. This really deeply frustrated her, so she taught 78 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:29,680 Speaker 2: herself to be more ambidextrous and to do things like 79 00:04:29,839 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 2: right upside down, using techniques and exercises from a pamphlet 80 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,560 Speaker 2: that her great grandfather had written that pamphlet was called 81 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:40,760 Speaker 2: painting with both Hands. I know so many people who 82 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:43,680 Speaker 2: were natural lefties that were forced to write right handed, 83 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:46,919 Speaker 2: and it was never delightful for anybody. 84 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:51,480 Speaker 1: No. I my preschool teachers kept telling me to put 85 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 1: the pencil in the hand that felt most comfortable in 86 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:56,200 Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't know what you're talking about, 87 00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:59,359 Speaker 1: so I just imitated what the other children were doing, 88 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:03,320 Speaker 1: And like I to this day don't know if I 89 00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:05,360 Speaker 1: really should have learned to write with my left hand. 90 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,320 Speaker 1: And that's why my penmanship has been terrible my entire life, 91 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: or maybe my penmanship is just terrible for my entire life. 92 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 2: You know, everybody scribbling. My dad was a lefty that 93 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:19,719 Speaker 2: was pushed to right handedness, and his penmanship has always 94 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:24,599 Speaker 2: been a little bit fraught, looking like it always looks stressed. Yeah. 95 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:27,120 Speaker 2: But when Cecilia was eight, she was out in the 96 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:30,279 Speaker 2: family's orchard when she spotted a bee orchid growing in 97 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:33,880 Speaker 2: the grass. She recognized it not because she had seen 98 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:36,760 Speaker 2: one before, but because her mother had described one to 99 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:39,760 Speaker 2: her once. And when she convinced her mother that yes, 100 00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:42,719 Speaker 2: there really was a bee orchid growing out in the orchard, 101 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:45,920 Speaker 2: Emma had the gardener transplant it to a better location, 102 00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:50,600 Speaker 2: and after this experience, Cecilia decided that the one thing 103 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:54,240 Speaker 2: she wanted to do was study nature and science. It 104 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:56,799 Speaker 2: was a few years before she could really do that though. 105 00:05:57,279 --> 00:06:00,520 Speaker 2: When Cecilia was twelve, the family moved from Wendo, which 106 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:03,880 Speaker 2: was a little more rural surrounded by woods and hills, 107 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:07,400 Speaker 2: to the Bayswater neighborhood of London. They moved there for 108 00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:10,160 Speaker 2: the sake of her brother Humphrey's education, to give him 109 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:13,880 Speaker 2: access to a better public school. Cecilia was enrolled in 110 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:17,839 Speaker 2: a parochial school called Saint Mary's. That school was really 111 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:20,360 Speaker 2: not a good fit for Cecilia, though. A big part 112 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:23,160 Speaker 2: of her school day was religious instruction, which really did 113 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:26,719 Speaker 2: not interest her so much so that she would pretend 114 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:29,000 Speaker 2: to feint to try to get out of going to chapel. 115 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:32,000 Speaker 2: She also tried to get a bookbinder to make her 116 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:34,599 Speaker 2: an addition of Plato in a Bible cover so that 117 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 2: she could read classical philosophy during her religion classes. Unfortunately, 118 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:42,440 Speaker 2: that brilliant plan was sorted because the bookbinder said no 119 00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:45,599 Speaker 2: to it. Yeah, apparently the bookbinder was appalled by that 120 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 2: very suggestion. On top of all of that. 121 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:52,520 Speaker 1: Girls who've truly wanted to learn and who excelled at 122 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:55,880 Speaker 1: school were viewed with a lot of suspicion. When Cecilia, 123 00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:59,159 Speaker 1: who was in the youngest class, came in second out 124 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:01,440 Speaker 1: of the entire school school in a year end exam, 125 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:04,839 Speaker 1: she wasn't praised for her performance. The other students were 126 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:09,720 Speaker 1: scolded for allowing her to beat them. Classes for girls 127 00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: were also mostly focused on reading and writing, not on 128 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,480 Speaker 1: the subjects that Cecilia felt a real passion for. 129 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:18,880 Speaker 2: Cecilia turned to the family library to try to make 130 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:21,720 Speaker 2: up for what she saw as huge holes in her education. 131 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:25,680 Speaker 2: And while she did love theater, opera, music, and literature, 132 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:29,400 Speaker 2: which were all represented there, which she really wanted to study, 133 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:32,440 Speaker 2: with science and there were almost no books on science 134 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:36,480 Speaker 2: on the family shelves. She finally found one book on botany, 135 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 2: but it was in German and French, which she did 136 00:07:38,840 --> 00:07:41,840 Speaker 2: not speak, so she got a dictionary from school and 137 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:45,960 Speaker 2: laboriously translated that book into English. She turned to this 138 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:49,880 Speaker 2: kind of resourcefulness again and again during her education, including 139 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 2: for example, transcribing an entire textbook from the library by 140 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:56,880 Speaker 2: hand before she started at Cambridge because she could not 141 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:58,720 Speaker 2: afford to buy a copy of her own. 142 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:01,760 Speaker 1: Eventually, the tea that Saint Mary's started to get really 143 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:05,920 Speaker 1: tired of Cecilia's persistence at demanding to study science and 144 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:08,840 Speaker 1: to be more challenged in her schoolwork. In addition to 145 00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:12,040 Speaker 1: trying to teach herself outside of school, she was essentially 146 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:15,920 Speaker 1: badgering her teachers into tutoring her in other subjects than 147 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:19,440 Speaker 1: the ones that the school offered. Finally, somebody told her 148 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:21,920 Speaker 1: that the only way she might be able to study 149 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: science was as part of training to become a school teacher, 150 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 1: so she volunteered to teach Sunday school classes to try 151 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:31,800 Speaker 1: to prepare herself. Although she focused her Sunday school teaching 152 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 1: a lot more on science than on the Bible. 153 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:41,920 Speaker 2: Today's lesson dandeliance what Cecilia spent years as Saint Mary's 154 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:44,680 Speaker 2: butting up against all kinds of barriers to the education 155 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:48,120 Speaker 2: that she wanted for herself, and that, of course, was 156 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:52,880 Speaker 2: frustrating and exasperating for everyone involved. Teachers and administrators saw 157 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:56,280 Speaker 2: her behavior as inappropriate and disruptive, and when she was 158 00:08:56,320 --> 00:08:59,280 Speaker 2: seventeen and had just a year left to go, she 159 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 2: was expelled. However, it does seem that the headmistress of 160 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:06,480 Speaker 2: Saint Mary's, wrote a letter encouraging Saint Paul's Girls' School, 161 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:09,920 Speaker 2: which had been established by the Worshipful Company of Mercers, 162 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:12,520 Speaker 2: to allow her to enroll there for her last year. 163 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:16,920 Speaker 2: Saint Paul's was far more focused on the academic success 164 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:19,800 Speaker 2: of its students than Saint Mary's had been, and once 165 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:23,200 Speaker 2: she got there, Cecilia was finally encouraged in her pursuit 166 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:26,800 Speaker 2: of science, and she excelled in other courses there as well, 167 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:31,320 Speaker 2: including polishing her skills in public speaking and studying music, 168 00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:34,520 Speaker 2: which was actually being taught by Gustav Holst, who was 169 00:09:34,559 --> 00:09:38,520 Speaker 2: not a famous composer. Yet when Holst finished his orchestral 170 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:41,480 Speaker 2: suite that's known as the Planets, Cecilia was actually one 171 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:43,360 Speaker 2: of the students who got to hear a performance of it. 172 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:48,240 Speaker 2: That is the coolest. Later on, Cecilia Payne Gaposhkin wrote 173 00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:50,679 Speaker 2: in her autobiography that the first time she walked through 174 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:53,120 Speaker 2: the door at Saint Paul's, she thought, quote, I shall 175 00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:56,680 Speaker 2: never be lonely again. Now I can think about science. 176 00:09:57,400 --> 00:10:00,600 Speaker 2: She finally had the freedom to really pursue her ami ambitions, 177 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:03,199 Speaker 2: and one of those ambitions was to go to Cambridge, 178 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:05,640 Speaker 2: which we'll talk about after a sponsor break. 179 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:18,920 Speaker 1: Although Cecilia Payne really thrived in the year that she 180 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:22,600 Speaker 1: spent at Saint Paul's, she still had a huge amount 181 00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:24,560 Speaker 1: of catching up to do if she wanted to go 182 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:28,440 Speaker 1: to the University of Cambridge. It wasn't just the challenge 183 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:31,320 Speaker 1: of getting into school there. She could only afford to 184 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:34,280 Speaker 1: go if she got a scholarship and aside from her 185 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,640 Speaker 1: self taught knowledge of botany from that book, she translated 186 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:41,320 Speaker 1: herself out of the dictionary. She was way behind in 187 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:44,680 Speaker 1: all the sciences and in math, but she devoted herself 188 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:46,800 Speaker 1: to catching up, and in the end, not only did 189 00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:49,840 Speaker 1: she get into Cambridge, but she also scored well enough 190 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:53,040 Speaker 1: on a competitive exam to earn the only scholarship that 191 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:55,880 Speaker 1: was big enough to cover all of her expenses in full. 192 00:10:56,640 --> 00:11:00,280 Speaker 1: Cecilia started at Newnham College, which is a women's college 193 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:04,440 Speaker 1: at Cambridge, in nineteen nineteen. Getting into Cambridge, though, did 194 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:06,520 Speaker 1: not mean that she had left behind the kind of 195 00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:09,640 Speaker 1: sexism that was such a big part of her earlier education. 196 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,800 Speaker 1: Newnham is a women's college, and it had strict rules 197 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:18,040 Speaker 1: for students' behavior, from standards of dress to curfews to 198 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:22,120 Speaker 1: a ban on male visitors. There were also specific rules 199 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:25,320 Speaker 1: for Newnham students when they attended lectures or other functions 200 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:28,959 Speaker 1: at other Cambridge colleges, and even though all the students 201 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:32,360 Speaker 1: at Cambridge were meeting the same academic requirements regardless of 202 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:37,000 Speaker 1: their gender, only men were actually awarded degrees. There were 203 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:41,880 Speaker 1: also expectations about which courses women should take. There wasn't 204 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:45,560 Speaker 1: really a barrier to studying the natural sciences in general, 205 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:48,319 Speaker 1: but from the first part of their time at Cambridge, 206 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:53,000 Speaker 1: women's studying the natural sciences were expected to focus on botany. 207 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:57,880 Speaker 1: Botany was like the women's science. Students selected two other 208 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:01,200 Speaker 1: subjects to go along with that primary focus, and the 209 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:06,560 Speaker 1: companion courses for botany were typically zoology and chemistry. So 210 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:09,320 Speaker 1: if a woman wanted to study science at Cambridge during 211 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:13,000 Speaker 1: this time, it was just generally understood that she would 212 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:16,040 Speaker 1: start out studying botany, zoology and chemistry. 213 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:20,760 Speaker 2: Well, of course, because ladies like flowers and animals. Correct 214 00:12:23,679 --> 00:12:27,320 Speaker 2: In spite of Cecilia's childhood experience with the bee orchid 215 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:30,319 Speaker 2: and her self taught study of botany by this point, 216 00:12:30,400 --> 00:12:32,640 Speaker 2: she was really a lot more interested in chemistry and 217 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:36,040 Speaker 2: physics at the same time, trying to make either of 218 00:12:36,040 --> 00:12:40,079 Speaker 2: those her primary course of study seemed incredibly risky, given 219 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:43,200 Speaker 2: how shaky her earlier instruction in these subjects had been, 220 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:46,280 Speaker 2: and in the math that was required, which she was 221 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:49,920 Speaker 2: also behind on, and in the uphill battle she would 222 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:52,960 Speaker 2: face as a young woman pursuing either of these subjects. 223 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:57,679 Speaker 2: So she initially chose to study botany and chemistry as expected, 224 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:01,920 Speaker 2: but she added physics to that rather than zoology. But 225 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:05,800 Speaker 2: on December second of nineteen nineteen, Cecilia Payne had an 226 00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:10,240 Speaker 2: experience that completely shifted her focus, much like the discovery 227 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:12,440 Speaker 2: of that bee orchid had when she was a child. 228 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:16,160 Speaker 2: This time it was a lecture by Arthur Stanley Eddington. 229 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:19,520 Speaker 2: Eddington had been part of an expedition to view the 230 00:13:19,559 --> 00:13:22,400 Speaker 2: total solar eclipse that took place on May nineteenth of 231 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:26,040 Speaker 2: nineteen nineteen, and that expedition was to measure how the 232 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:30,200 Speaker 2: Sun's gravity affected light from stars. We talked about that 233 00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:34,520 Speaker 2: expedition in our twenty seventeen episode on historical eclipses. The 234 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:39,239 Speaker 2: data gathered during this eclipse supported Einstein's theory of general relativity, 235 00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 2: and Cecilia was absolutely captivated by this lecture, She later 236 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:47,400 Speaker 2: wrote quote, the result was a complete transformation of my 237 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:50,560 Speaker 2: world picture. When I returned to my room, I found 238 00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 2: that I could write down the lecture word for word. 239 00:13:53,559 --> 00:13:56,320 Speaker 1: At about the same time, Cecilia was also starting to 240 00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:59,880 Speaker 1: question her choice of studying botany. Most of the material 241 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:02,760 Speaker 1: she was hearing and lectures was already familiar to her, 242 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:06,320 Speaker 1: but at the same time she was so inexperienced at 243 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:09,480 Speaker 1: the more practical side that she made mistakes that caused 244 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:13,760 Speaker 1: her to doubt herself. After Eddington's lecture, she really wished 245 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:16,560 Speaker 1: she could change her focus to astronomy, but that was 246 00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:22,960 Speaker 1: flatly impossible. Astronomy was classified under math, not under natural science, 247 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:26,440 Speaker 1: and students could not jump into a totally different course 248 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:30,120 Speaker 1: of study that way. So she changed her main focus 249 00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:33,960 Speaker 1: from botany to physics, and since students were allowed to 250 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:37,640 Speaker 1: attend lectures outside their particular field of study, she also 251 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:40,760 Speaker 1: went to astronomy lectures and spent as much time at 252 00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:45,120 Speaker 1: Cambridge Observatory as she could with the help of astronomer L. J. 253 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:49,360 Speaker 2: Comery. She also repaired the clock at Newnham's small observatory 254 00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:53,800 Speaker 2: and started spending her evenings there making observations and recording data. 255 00:14:54,400 --> 00:14:57,160 Speaker 2: At one point, she ran into Arthur Eddington again at 256 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:00,160 Speaker 2: Cambridge Observatory and told him that she wanted to to 257 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,720 Speaker 2: be an astronomer. When he realized how set she was 258 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:06,560 Speaker 2: on this idea and how much study she had already 259 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:09,880 Speaker 2: done on her own, he recommended some journals that she 260 00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:12,560 Speaker 2: could use to continue her studies, and also told her 261 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:16,000 Speaker 2: that she could use the Cambridge Observatory library. As all 262 00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:19,480 Speaker 2: of this had been happening, debate had been ongoing about 263 00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:23,560 Speaker 2: how women's education should work at Cambridge, and on October 264 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:26,680 Speaker 2: twenty fourth, nineteen twenty one, the Cambridge Council of the 265 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:30,520 Speaker 2: Senate voted that women would be granted titular degrees from 266 00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:34,040 Speaker 2: the university. This was better than the previous setup, which 267 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:36,640 Speaker 2: was that women who completed all the requirements of the 268 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:40,280 Speaker 2: degree were awarded nothing, but it also meant that women 269 00:15:40,320 --> 00:15:42,560 Speaker 2: were to be given the title of the degree, but 270 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:47,800 Speaker 2: not the degree itself. This sparked outrage, mainly from men 271 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:51,440 Speaker 2: who objected to women being acknowledged at all. In early 272 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:55,080 Speaker 2: nineteen twenty three, Cecilia Payne was getting toward the end 273 00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:57,320 Speaker 2: of her study at Cambridge, and she had spent those 274 00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:00,880 Speaker 2: years dividing her time, adding as much as astronomy as 275 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:03,680 Speaker 2: she could to her study of physics and natural sciences. 276 00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:07,160 Speaker 2: She had learned from luminaries like Nils Bohr, who was 277 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:09,920 Speaker 2: awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Adams in 278 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:14,600 Speaker 2: nineteen twenty two. She also studied computing, including joining the 279 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:19,080 Speaker 2: computing section at the British Astronomical Association, and she had 280 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,800 Speaker 2: been elected to the Royal Astronomical Society while still a 281 00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:26,400 Speaker 2: student as well. She had done all this while facing 282 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:29,760 Speaker 2: derision and resentment, not just from her male peers, but 283 00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:33,720 Speaker 2: also in some cases from the faculty. At lectures women 284 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:36,440 Speaker 2: were required to sit in the front row by themselves. 285 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:39,840 Speaker 2: She described how at the start of his lectures, Ernest 286 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:45,240 Speaker 2: Rutherford would very pointedly begin ladies and gentlemen. She'd also 287 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,600 Speaker 2: come to understand that she just had no future as 288 00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:52,160 Speaker 2: an astronomer if she stayed in England because of her sex. 289 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:54,560 Speaker 2: The only path that was really open to her was 290 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:57,080 Speaker 2: still becoming a school teacher. LJ. 291 00:16:57,200 --> 00:16:59,920 Speaker 1: Comra offered to take her to a lecture that Harlow She, 292 00:17:00,440 --> 00:17:03,920 Speaker 1: who was director of the Harvard College Observatory, was giving 293 00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:07,359 Speaker 1: in London. Comray could introduce the two of them, and 294 00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:09,840 Speaker 1: then maybe that would open a door for Cecilia to 295 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:13,200 Speaker 1: continue her education in the United States, where she might 296 00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:17,320 Speaker 1: have more opportunities than she did in the UK. This worked, 297 00:17:17,840 --> 00:17:20,439 Speaker 1: Payne told Shapley directly that she wanted to come to 298 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:24,240 Speaker 1: Harvard to work for him. Shapley encouraged this idea, casually 299 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:28,400 Speaker 1: suggesting that she might replace Annie jump Cannon, Harvard Observatory's 300 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:32,600 Speaker 1: curator of astronomical photographs when she retired. This was more 301 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:35,160 Speaker 1: of a reflection on the rules that women filled at 302 00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:38,439 Speaker 1: Harvard rather than an actual job offer. Yeah, it was 303 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:41,520 Speaker 1: sort of like offhanded, Hey, maybe you could be Annie's replacement, 304 00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:45,120 Speaker 1: because obviously a woman does that job, and a woman 305 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:46,280 Speaker 1: would do that job. 306 00:17:47,560 --> 00:17:48,000 Speaker 2: Anyway. 307 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:51,560 Speaker 1: Just as going to Cambridge had required Cecilia to gain 308 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:55,280 Speaker 1: admission and also to get a scholarship, going to Harvard 309 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:58,480 Speaker 1: also required her to secure some funding, otherwise she just 310 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:01,480 Speaker 1: would not have the money to do it. On February 311 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:04,560 Speaker 1: twenty sixth, nineteen twenty three, she wrote to Shapley about 312 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:08,160 Speaker 1: trying to get a fellowship. She also got recommendations from 313 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:11,960 Speaker 1: Arthur Eddington, L. J. Comer, and her old headmistress at 314 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:14,720 Speaker 1: Saint Paul's. It really seems like she got a recommendation 315 00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:18,600 Speaker 1: from every conceivable person that could give her one. She 316 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:21,800 Speaker 1: also applied for as many scholarships and fellowships as she 317 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:24,840 Speaker 1: could to try to scrape together enough money to afford 318 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:28,560 Speaker 1: her passage across the ocean, to buy appropriate clothing, and 319 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:31,080 Speaker 1: to pay for her living expenses while she was there. 320 00:18:31,359 --> 00:18:34,720 Speaker 2: And once again she was successful. As she prepared to 321 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:38,760 Speaker 2: leave England, astrophysicist Edward Arthur Milne suggests that if he 322 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:41,320 Speaker 2: were in her place, he would take advantage of the 323 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:45,000 Speaker 2: wealth of data available at Harvard to verify an equation 324 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:50,160 Speaker 2: that astrophysicist Mignod Saha had developed in nineteen twenty. This 325 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:54,359 Speaker 2: equation expressed the relationship between a star's pressure and temperature 326 00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:58,160 Speaker 2: and the ionization of the elements in the star. We'll 327 00:18:58,200 --> 00:18:59,239 Speaker 2: get so what she did with that? 328 00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:12,400 Speaker 1: After one month sponsor break, Cethlia Payne left Cambridge, England, 329 00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:16,800 Speaker 1: for Cambridge, Massachusetts in September of nineteen twenty three. Her 330 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:20,240 Speaker 1: fellowship at Harvard College Observatory gave her the freedom to 331 00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:24,080 Speaker 1: choose the focus of her research, and, as E. A. 332 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:28,159 Speaker 1: Milne had suggested, she started studying photographic plates of the 333 00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:32,320 Speaker 1: spectra of stars to try to confirm SAHA's equation to 334 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:34,880 Speaker 1: make sense of what she was doing all the way 335 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:38,200 Speaker 1: back in sixteen sixty six, Isaac Newton used a prism 336 00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:42,120 Speaker 1: to separate sunlight into a continuous series of colors, using 337 00:19:42,119 --> 00:19:46,159 Speaker 1: the word spectrum to describe what he saw. Later, William 338 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,800 Speaker 1: Wallaston and Joseph Fraunhoffer each observed that if you looked 339 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,639 Speaker 1: at the sun's spectrum in fine enough detail, there were 340 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: dark lines within that spectrum. These became known as Fraunhoffer 341 00:19:56,600 --> 00:20:00,480 Speaker 1: lines or absorption lines, but Fraunhoffer did not have an 342 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:04,479 Speaker 1: explanation for what those lines were or why they were there. Then, 343 00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:08,320 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty five, Robert Bunsen built on earlier designs 344 00:20:08,359 --> 00:20:11,800 Speaker 1: to develop the Bunsen burner. The Bunsen burner produced an 345 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:15,159 Speaker 1: almost colorless flame, and that made it useful for studying 346 00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:18,639 Speaker 1: the light that was produced by heating or burning different elements. 347 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:23,000 Speaker 1: Not long after, Gustav Kershoff suggested that they could use 348 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:26,800 Speaker 1: a prism to separate this light into its spectrum. That 349 00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:30,040 Speaker 1: would make it easier to distinguish the fine differences in 350 00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:33,280 Speaker 1: flames that have really similar colors. This was an early 351 00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:37,919 Speaker 1: version of the spectroscope. Through this work, Kershoff discovered that 352 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:41,840 Speaker 1: each element had its own unique set of spectral lines 353 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:45,040 Speaker 1: when it was heated, almost like a fingerprint. We talked 354 00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:46,680 Speaker 1: a little bit about this when we talked about the 355 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:51,240 Speaker 1: discovery of helium. Emission lines come from the wavelengths of 356 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,600 Speaker 1: light that elements emit when they're excited, and absorption lines 357 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:57,680 Speaker 1: appear when wavelengths of light are absorbed in between when 358 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:01,159 Speaker 1: they're produced and when we observe them. Today, we know 359 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:03,720 Speaker 1: that the presence of these lines relates to the structure 360 00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:06,560 Speaker 1: of the atom and what happens when adams are excited 361 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:09,159 Speaker 1: to different levels of energy. But at the end of 362 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:13,680 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, physicists and astronomers knew that these spectra existed, 363 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:17,400 Speaker 1: but they didn't quite know what they meant. At Harvard 364 00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:22,880 Speaker 1: College Observatory, astronomers started using these spectra to classify stars. 365 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:24,480 Speaker 2: Wilhelmina P. S. 366 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:29,200 Speaker 1: Fleming, who had been the housekeeper of observatory director Edward C. Pickering, 367 00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:33,199 Speaker 1: developed a classification system that was primarily based on the 368 00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:37,560 Speaker 1: strength of the hydrogen lines in these spectra. Ani Jump 369 00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:41,639 Speaker 1: Cannon later simplified and refined this system into one that 370 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:47,800 Speaker 1: still exists today. The types BAFG, K, and M often 371 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:51,879 Speaker 1: put into the mnemonic obia fine girl Kiss Me that 372 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:55,639 Speaker 1: was purportedly coined by Henry Norris Russell. There are also 373 00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:58,840 Speaker 1: a few other classifications that can be added into that mnemonic, 374 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:02,160 Speaker 1: and some other attempts at mnemonics that are less gendered, 375 00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:06,560 Speaker 1: relying on the idea that, like, you want a woman 376 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:09,639 Speaker 1: to kiss you, maybe whether she's really up for that 377 00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:09,960 Speaker 1: or not. 378 00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:12,240 Speaker 2: That includes only. 379 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:14,880 Speaker 1: Bad astronomers forget generally known mnemonics. 380 00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:20,439 Speaker 2: But as was the case with Fraunhofer's discovery of absorption spectrum, 381 00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:23,160 Speaker 2: canon didn't really have a sense of why stars fit 382 00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:27,680 Speaker 2: into these categories or what those categories meant. She was cataloging, 383 00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:31,560 Speaker 2: not analyzing or interpreting. But the Observatory did have more 384 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:36,800 Speaker 2: than two hundred thousand photographic plates documenting star spectra organized 385 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:39,960 Speaker 2: into these categories, thanks to the work of Williamina Fleming, 386 00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:43,200 Speaker 2: Anti Jump Cannon, and other women at Harvard Observatory. 387 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:45,600 Speaker 1: I have Anti jump Cannon on my list for a 388 00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:47,800 Speaker 1: future episode, just in case folks are like I wish 389 00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:51,399 Speaker 1: you had an episode on anti jump Cannon. After getting 390 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:54,800 Speaker 1: to Harvard Cecilia Payne got to work examining these. 391 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:58,359 Speaker 2: Plates through a jeweler's loop. She worked with an intense 392 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:02,600 Speaker 2: and unshakeable focus, some times going days without sleep, chainsmoking 393 00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:06,240 Speaker 2: the whole time, rarely remembering to empty the ashtray. A 394 00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:11,240 Speaker 2: lot of accounts of her office talk about the overflowing astray. Eventually, 395 00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:15,080 Speaker 2: she realized that she was seeing four different ionizations of 396 00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:19,360 Speaker 2: silicon represented in the spectra on the plates. This ultimately 397 00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:22,520 Speaker 2: led her to the discovery that the variations she was 398 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:26,679 Speaker 2: seeing among these spectra were coming from different levels of 399 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:29,919 Speaker 2: ionization of the elements that were involved based on the 400 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:34,639 Speaker 2: stars temperature, not on actual differences in the amounts of 401 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:37,960 Speaker 2: elements that were present there. Through all of this work 402 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:41,960 Speaker 2: folded into SAHA's equation. Pain gradually came to understand that 403 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,120 Speaker 2: all the stars had roughly the same proportions of eighteen 404 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:50,240 Speaker 2: different elements, with hydrogen and helium being most abundant. However, 405 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:53,320 Speaker 2: this was totally contrary to the theories of the day. 406 00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:57,160 Speaker 2: Most astronomers and physicists at the time were working from 407 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:00,720 Speaker 2: the principle of uniformity, that all the planets stars were 408 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:03,520 Speaker 2: made of the same elements that Earth was in about 409 00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,640 Speaker 2: the same proportions, and while there were a few elements 410 00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:09,440 Speaker 2: that did have similar proportions to what was found on Earth, 411 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:13,280 Speaker 2: she discovered that helium was one thousand times more abundant 412 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:16,679 Speaker 2: than expected, and hydrogen, which we now know is the 413 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:19,959 Speaker 2: most prevalent element in the universe, was a million times 414 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:24,520 Speaker 2: more abundant. So pain had always been ambitious, but she. 415 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:26,760 Speaker 1: Also realized that it was possible that she had not 416 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:30,119 Speaker 1: just discovered something that would completely rewrite our understanding of 417 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:32,520 Speaker 1: the stars, that maybe she had just made a mistake, 418 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,760 Speaker 1: like it's a shorter walk to I made a mistake 419 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:40,239 Speaker 1: than I have just discovered something that fundamentally changes our 420 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:44,760 Speaker 1: understanding of how the universe works. So she painstakingly went 421 00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,439 Speaker 1: through her work over and over trying to figure out 422 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:49,439 Speaker 1: where she had made an error, and she could not 423 00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:51,640 Speaker 1: find one because she had not made one. 424 00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:56,240 Speaker 2: She was right. At this point, Harlow Shapley was trying 425 00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,959 Speaker 2: to transform Harvard Observatory into a department of astronomy. At heart, 426 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:03,439 Speaker 2: he convinced Paine to use her findings to write a 427 00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:06,720 Speaker 2: thesis which would allow her to earn the first PhD 428 00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:11,480 Speaker 2: in astronomy ever to be awarded at Harvard University. At first, 429 00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:14,000 Speaker 2: Paine doubted that this would be worth her time, but 430 00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:16,960 Speaker 2: she ultimately agreed. However, some of. 431 00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:19,840 Speaker 1: The people who were involved with reviewing and approving the 432 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:24,840 Speaker 1: thesis doubted her conclusions. In particular, Henry Norris Russell, whose 433 00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:28,359 Speaker 1: work hinged on the principle of uniformity, demanded that she 434 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:32,720 Speaker 1: allow for the possibility that she was just mistaken. Her 435 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:37,280 Speaker 1: thesis included the caveat quote the outstanding discrepancies between the 436 00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:42,480 Speaker 1: astrophysical and terrestrial abundances are displayed for hydrogen and helium. 437 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,680 Speaker 1: The enormous abundance derived for these elements in the stellar 438 00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:51,040 Speaker 1: atmospheres is almost certainly not real. Russell would not have 439 00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:55,320 Speaker 1: accepted Pain's thesis without this concession, so if she hadn't 440 00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:57,640 Speaker 1: included it, she wouldn't have had a thesis at all 441 00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:02,080 Speaker 1: or been awarded a PhD. So including this couching was 442 00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:05,720 Speaker 1: a pragmatic decision. This wasn't something that she brooded over, 443 00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:08,760 Speaker 1: but it was something she regretted. She would later say 444 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:11,280 Speaker 1: quote as a warning to the young, if you are 445 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:15,160 Speaker 1: sure of your facts, you should defend your position, even 446 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:19,240 Speaker 1: with its downplaying of the most revolutionary for findings in 447 00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:23,640 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two, Atto, Struva and Delta Zieberg's called this thesis, 448 00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:27,639 Speaker 1: which was published under the title Stellar Atmospheres, a Contribution 449 00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:30,920 Speaker 1: to the observational study of high temperature in the reversing 450 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:35,280 Speaker 1: layers of stars. They called it quote undoubtedly the most 451 00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:39,800 Speaker 1: brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy. It was also 452 00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:43,000 Speaker 1: the first monograph ever to be published by the Harvard Observatory. 453 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:46,879 Speaker 1: Cecilia Paine was awarded a PhD from Radcliffe College in 454 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:50,479 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty five, as Harvard itself did not yet award 455 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:53,960 Speaker 1: degrees to women. Harlow Shapley had thought her work was 456 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:57,520 Speaker 1: so obviously profound and worthy that after she took her 457 00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:00,800 Speaker 1: final oral exam for her PhD, he didn't tell her 458 00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:04,800 Speaker 1: she had passed. She only found out after astronomer Margaret 459 00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:08,600 Speaker 1: Harwood found her weeping inconsolably in her office, thinking that 460 00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:11,320 Speaker 1: she must have failed. I want to time travel and 461 00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:14,320 Speaker 1: hug her. I'dn't want a time travel and yell at 462 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,720 Speaker 1: Harlow Shapley. Well, I feel like though his thing wasn't 463 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:18,960 Speaker 1: even he was just thoughtless. 464 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:22,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, he was like, obviously you passed. How what? 465 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:27,600 Speaker 1: Anyway? Eventually the field of Astronomy did come to realize 466 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:30,800 Speaker 1: that Payne's conclusions about the compositions of stars and the 467 00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:34,480 Speaker 1: abundance of hydrogen and helium in the universe were correct. 468 00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,760 Speaker 1: This included Henry Norris Russell, who acknowledged that fact in 469 00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,320 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine. The completion of her PhD meant that 470 00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:44,040 Speaker 1: Pain no longer had fellowship money to live off of, 471 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 1: so she started looking for a job. She got offers 472 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:51,320 Speaker 1: from other observatories and universities, but she ultimately stayed at Harvard, 473 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:54,720 Speaker 1: where she was hired as Harlow Shapley's assistant. This didn't 474 00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:57,040 Speaker 1: pay very much, and she had to pawn some of 475 00:27:57,080 --> 00:27:59,440 Speaker 1: her belongings to make ends meet in the gap between 476 00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,520 Speaker 1: when her fell u ship ended and when her job started, 477 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:04,600 Speaker 1: but it was enough for her to move out of 478 00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:07,160 Speaker 1: the dorm and into her own apartment as long as 479 00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:10,639 Speaker 1: she had a roommate. Being Shapley's assistant also meant that 480 00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,440 Speaker 1: Pain no longer had the freedom to choose the research 481 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:16,080 Speaker 1: that she wanted to do, and at first Shapley had 482 00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:19,480 Speaker 1: her keep working with photographic plates of stellar spectra, even 483 00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:23,359 Speaker 1: though there was more sophisticated technology becoming available by that point. 484 00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:26,800 Speaker 1: She was also expected to teach courses for the newly 485 00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:30,560 Speaker 1: established Department of Astronomy at Harvard, although since she wasn't 486 00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:33,800 Speaker 1: technically on the faculty, her name was not included in 487 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:37,960 Speaker 1: the course catalog. Her students described her as very intense, 488 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:43,000 Speaker 1: sometimes intimidating, and her lectures were both beautiful and memorable. 489 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:47,040 Speaker 1: Even though she was not being paid or recognized accordingly, 490 00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 1: Chapley was definitely aware of what an asset pain was. 491 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:53,720 Speaker 1: In one letter, he described her as quote one of 492 00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:58,320 Speaker 1: the most outstanding astrophysicists of America of any and all sexes. 493 00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:01,960 Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty six, she also became the youngest person 494 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:05,320 Speaker 1: to be listed in American Men of Science. She became 495 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:07,560 Speaker 1: a US citizen in nineteen thirty one. 496 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:09,280 Speaker 2: Then in nineteen thirty two. 497 00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:13,480 Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty three, Cecilia Payne experienced a series of tragedies. 498 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:17,960 Speaker 1: Her closest friend from Harvard was astronomer Adelaide Ames. The 499 00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:19,800 Speaker 1: two of them were so close that they had been 500 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:24,400 Speaker 1: nicknamed the Heavenly Twins. Adelaide drowned after being swept from 501 00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:28,080 Speaker 1: a canoe during a sudden storm. In nineteen thirty two. 502 00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:31,840 Speaker 1: While at Cambridge, Cecilia had been similarly inseparable from her 503 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,680 Speaker 1: friend Betty Leaf, and they had remained very close in 504 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:37,880 Speaker 1: the years that had followed. Cecilia learned that Betty had 505 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:41,680 Speaker 1: also drowned in nineteen thirty three. As she later wrote 506 00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:45,200 Speaker 1: in her autobiography, quote Adelaide and Betty all that I 507 00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:50,280 Speaker 1: was not beautiful, delicate, beloved were dead and I was alive. 508 00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:55,000 Speaker 1: I was absorbed in my work, shy and unattractive. What 509 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:58,360 Speaker 1: was I giving? I made a silent resolve. I would 510 00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:01,120 Speaker 1: open my heart to the world. I would embrace life. 511 00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:04,880 Speaker 1: She decided to travel, making a trip to the Polkovo 512 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:09,160 Speaker 1: Observatory outside Saint Petersburg. During that trip, she also went 513 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,920 Speaker 1: to an astronomical conference in Guttengen, Germany, and there she 514 00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:17,680 Speaker 1: met Sergei Gaposhkin. Kaposhkin was from Russia. His parents and 515 00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:20,720 Speaker 1: most of his siblings had died during a Typhus outbreak, 516 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,240 Speaker 1: and at the end of the Russian Civil War had 517 00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:25,960 Speaker 1: left him with no money and no documents that could 518 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:29,720 Speaker 1: prove his identity. Eventually, he had made his way into Germany, 519 00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:33,320 Speaker 1: where he had earned a PhD in astronomy, but Hitler's 520 00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:36,200 Speaker 1: rise to power put him in a really impossible situation. 521 00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:39,800 Speaker 1: He was a Russian living in Germany without any papers. 522 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:43,920 Speaker 1: Kapashkin traveled by a bicycle for four days to get 523 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,400 Speaker 1: to Guttingen for this conference with the hope that one 524 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,600 Speaker 1: of the other astronomers there could help him get out, and. 525 00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:53,320 Speaker 2: The person who helped him was Cecilia Payne. She got 526 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:56,080 Speaker 2: Harlow Shapley to offer him a position at Harvard and 527 00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:59,480 Speaker 2: to contact the American consul in Germany to try to 528 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,640 Speaker 2: get gap Oshkin out of the country. After she got 529 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:06,280 Speaker 2: back to the United States, Cecilia personally went to Washington, 530 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:08,880 Speaker 2: d c. To try to get his visa expedited. 531 00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:12,800 Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty four, three months after Sergei arrived in 532 00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:16,400 Speaker 1: the US, he and Cecilia got married. Most of her 533 00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:21,080 Speaker 1: colleagues were baffled. It did seem quite sudden, but in 534 00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:23,520 Speaker 1: a lot of ways their marriage really made sense. Both 535 00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:27,240 Speaker 1: of them were dedicated astronomers, and Sergei was also an artist. 536 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,360 Speaker 1: At the time, it was expected for women to leave 537 00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:34,120 Speaker 1: the workforce after getting married, but serge was a refugee 538 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:37,400 Speaker 1: and his temporary job at Harvard paid even less than 539 00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:40,280 Speaker 1: Cecilia's did. If they got married, that meant that he 540 00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:43,440 Speaker 1: would be dependent on her income to survive. There would 541 00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:45,560 Speaker 1: be no possible way for her to just leave the 542 00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:47,360 Speaker 1: workforce because she was a married woman. 543 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,920 Speaker 2: Now. In other ways, it made less sense. Over time, 544 00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:54,440 Speaker 2: Sergei developed a reputation for being opinionated and hard to 545 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,800 Speaker 2: work with, and he openly flirted with other women in 546 00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:02,720 Speaker 2: the observatory. He was a cape astronomer, but Cecilia was brilliant. 547 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,680 Speaker 2: In some accounts, Harvard tolerated his rough edges just to 548 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:07,760 Speaker 2: keep Cecilia there. 549 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:12,760 Speaker 1: Between nineteen thirty five and nineteen forty, they had three children, Edward, Catherine, 550 00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:16,840 Speaker 1: and Peter, and Cecilia broke with convention yet again by 551 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:20,320 Speaker 1: continuing to teach while she was pregnant. Since they couldn't 552 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:23,040 Speaker 1: afford childcare, they pretty much bought the kids with them 553 00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:27,040 Speaker 1: to work. Cecilia and Sergei also started doing research together, 554 00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,280 Speaker 1: publishing a book on variable stars in nineteen thirty eight. 555 00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:34,680 Speaker 1: That same year, the American Astronomical Society awarded Cecilia Payne 556 00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:38,280 Speaker 1: Gaposhkin the first ever Anti Jump Cannon Prize, which still 557 00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:42,680 Speaker 1: exists today and recognizes outstanding postdoctoral research by a woman. 558 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:46,960 Speaker 1: Also in nineteen thirty eight, Payn Gapashkin was finally named 559 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,440 Speaker 1: to the Harvard faculty with the title of astronomer. In 560 00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:54,040 Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen thirty nine, serge and Cecilia traveled 561 00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:57,000 Speaker 1: to Paris for a conference in spite of the growing 562 00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:00,840 Speaker 1: tensions in Europe, but Sir Arthur Stanley Addington was also 563 00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:03,200 Speaker 1: going to be at this conference, and Cecilia wanted the 564 00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:05,800 Speaker 1: chance to see him again. This actually turned out to 565 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:07,560 Speaker 1: be her last opportunity to do so. 566 00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:08,040 Speaker 2: He died. 567 00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:13,400 Speaker 1: In nineteen forty four. Germany invaded Poland just days before 568 00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:17,440 Speaker 1: Cecilia and Sergei arrived back in the US aboard a ship, 569 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:19,560 Speaker 1: the French vessel called the SS Normandy. 570 00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:23,280 Speaker 2: Cecilia and Sergei continued to work at Harvard during and 571 00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:27,000 Speaker 2: after the war. Cecilia's name was finally included in the 572 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:31,360 Speaker 2: course catalog starting in nineteen forty five. In nineteen fifty six, 573 00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:33,880 Speaker 2: she became the first woman to be a tenured professor 574 00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:36,720 Speaker 2: at Harvard, and soon after she was also the first 575 00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:40,120 Speaker 2: woman to share a department that wasn't specifically for women. 576 00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:43,880 Speaker 2: At this point, her salary was doubled, but her children 577 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,840 Speaker 2: were still a fixture around the laboratory. The Harvard Observatory 578 00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:51,640 Speaker 2: Council formally warned Peter the Youngest to stop bothering the 579 00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:55,120 Speaker 2: staff in nineteen fifty eight. She was away when the 580 00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:59,000 Speaker 2: meeting happened when they had this discussion, and was outraged 581 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:02,560 Speaker 2: about it. It's very embarrassing. And she was also like, 582 00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:05,040 Speaker 2: he's old enough for you to be talking directly to 583 00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:10,440 Speaker 2: him about these issues anyway. During her career as an astronomer, 584 00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,760 Speaker 2: Cecilia Pangaposhkin published more than one hundred and fifty papers 585 00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:17,239 Speaker 2: and several monographs, as well as multiple books on astronomy. 586 00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:20,200 Speaker 2: In addition to the one we mentioned earlier. This included 587 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:23,840 Speaker 2: The Stars of High Luminosity in nineteen thirty and Variable 588 00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:27,360 Speaker 2: Stars in Galactic Structure in nineteen fifty four. In nineteen 589 00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:30,720 Speaker 2: seventy six, she was awarded the Henry Norris Russell Prize, 590 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:34,360 Speaker 2: which is essentially a lifetime achievement award by the American 591 00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:39,200 Speaker 2: Astronomical Society and a nice irony considering his earlier appearance 592 00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:44,000 Speaker 2: in this story. Cecilia Payne Gaposhkin died of lung cancer 593 00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:48,760 Speaker 2: on December seventh, nineteen seventy nine. Her daughter published her autobiography, 594 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:52,080 Speaker 2: The Dyer's Hand, along with other collected writings in nineteen 595 00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:55,600 Speaker 2: eighty four. Today there is a portrait of Cecilia Payne 596 00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:59,040 Speaker 2: Gaposhkin hanging in the faculty room in Harvard's University Hall. 597 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,200 Speaker 2: It is in the style of vermir sixteen sixty eight 598 00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:05,680 Speaker 2: painting The Astronomer, and it was painted by Patricia Wattwood. 599 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:09,080 Speaker 2: We will end with a quote from Cecilia Payne Gaposhkin 600 00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:11,960 Speaker 2: quote there is no joy more intense than that of 601 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:15,040 Speaker 2: coming upon a fact that cannot be understood in terms 602 00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:18,319 Speaker 2: of currently accepted ideas. Nature has always had a trick 603 00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:20,920 Speaker 2: of surprising us, and she will continue to surprise us. 604 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:24,680 Speaker 2: But she has never let us down yet. I love her. 605 00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:26,840 Speaker 2: I do too. She's marvelous and I'm so glad you 606 00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:27,760 Speaker 2: picked this one. 607 00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:30,960 Speaker 1: I'm so glad that mysterious people asked for this a 608 00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:32,759 Speaker 1: couple of months ago, and now I can find no 609 00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:35,960 Speaker 1: record of it. Maybe maybe someone will write and explain 610 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:40,000 Speaker 1: where they saw it, like what maybe what Facebook group 611 00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:43,279 Speaker 1: or twitters read or whatever it got brought up on 612 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:46,399 Speaker 1: that got so many people excited about her story. Yeah. 613 00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:51,040 Speaker 1: I tried several different searches to try to try, like 614 00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:54,440 Speaker 1: try to find the emails. I tried just Cecilia. I 615 00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:58,360 Speaker 1: tried Gaposhkin, I tried her whole name. I remember specifically 616 00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:00,440 Speaker 1: somebody said, can you do an episod so on the 617 00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:03,839 Speaker 1: woman who discovered helium, And I was like, I don't 618 00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:07,880 Speaker 1: think that's quite right, quite what, but like and I 619 00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:10,960 Speaker 1: like just searching helium, I also didn't find. It was 620 00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:17,480 Speaker 1: just a whole big mystery.