Jacqueline and Simon Mitton discuss their biography of famed astronomer Vera Rubin (Belknap Press, 2021) 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 … Continue reading →


Jacqueline and Simon Mitton discuss their biography of famed astronomer Vera Rubin (Belknap Press, 2021)

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.


(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://amzn.to/3q9fEsZ


https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674919198&content=reviews


http://totalastronomy.com/


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


As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.


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