Perspective
Cecilia: W
The Tale of Two Elements
hen I hear the term “unsung hero of science,” chemical elements, would never have been written without the first thought that comes to mind is of an un‐ Payne-Gaposchkin’s innovative approach. derrated, belittled researcher, his theses discred‐
ited by the wider world of erudition. I imagine a man, slumped at his desk, disparaged by his fellows’ baseless accus‐
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ayne-Gaposchkin, herself, was quite the underdog. Born in 1900, her father died when she was just four, leaving
ations that his industry is uncorroborated or illegitimate. her mother to take care of the family alone. She won a schol‐ What doesn’t come to mind – yet what rightly should – are arship to Cambridge University, but was never awarded the the real unsung heroes, or, rather, heroines.
degree she earned because of her gender – a hardship many
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin is a perfect example. An elec‐ women faced until 1948. Attending a lecture by Arthur Ed‐ ted member of the Royal Astronomical Society while still dington in 1919 on his expedition to observe and photograph studying at Cambridge University, and the first person to stars as a test of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, the posit the idea that the primary composition of stars was he‐ flame, which was soon to become a flair for astrophysics, was lium and hydrogen (the two lightest elements), her disserta‐ ignited; she called it “a complete transformation in [her] tion was shunned by the leading scientists of her day, purely world picture.” She exchanged Cambridge, England, for because it contradicted the paradigms of her era. She also re‐ Cambridge, Massachusetts, leaving her home in 1923 to pur‐ vealed that such deposits of hydrogen were one million times sue a career at Harvard College Observatory. more abundant than on Earth, and thus it was the most com‐
There, she worked tirelessly for over 40 years, though
mon element in the entire universe. Nevertheless, this only not without competition. Harlow Shapley, head of the Ob‐ led her to be ridiculed further, since her results were so un‐ servatory, often pitted Payne-Gaposchkin against one of precedented and her thinking so unorthodox. In fact, even Russell’s mentees, Donald Menzel (yes, the same Russell she described her results as “spurious” due to their ground- again, who dismissed her astrophysical breakthrough). It was breaking implications and the imposed pressure of her peers.
only when Menzel succeeded Shapley as acting director of
It wasn’t until 1929 when astronomer Henry Norris Rus‐ the observatory in 1952 (and official head two years later) that sell – the very same man who rejected her research four years the competitors found common ground. Heart-warmingly, earlier – published his own identical findings in a paper that it was he who strove to improve her reputation, and he did so the theory became widely-accepted. If that wasn’t unfair markedly, eventually awarding her proper recognition as the enough, Payne-Gaposchkin’s discoveries are still often first female professor in the faculty, and head of the college ascribed to Russell, despite the opposite being true.
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astronomy department. Payne-Gaposchkin won the Rittenhouse Medal from the
n terms of significance, Payne-Gaposchkin’s work made Rittenhouse Astronomical Society at the Franklin Institute in metaphorical headlines, and revolutionised approaches to 1961, and lived to see her name immortalised in the field she
astrophysics across the globe. Otto Struve, arguably one of loved so passionately, as the ‘2039 Payne-Gaposchkin Aster‐ the most prolific astronomers to date, with over 900 journal oid’: a minor planet, in whose cosmic brilliance her legacy articles and books, pronounced it “the most brilliant PhD will live on forever. To further memorialise such an influen‐ thesis ever written in astronomy” – an accolade very few can tial pioneer and figurehead of modern day science, the Amer‐ flaunt. And it didn’t stop there.
ican Physical Society's Doctoral Dissertation Award in
Former contentions that the Sun’s elemental composition Astrophysics was renamed the Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was similar to that of Earth were therefore disproved, which Doctoral Dissertation Award in Astrophysics in 2018, to gave way to the major conjectures of stellar nucleosynthesis, kindle the solar flare of hope of the future unsung heroes – stellar lifecycles, and the astrophysics of supernovae. The and heroines – of science. famous B2FH paper – among the most cited in astrophysics history – which explored nuclear fusion and the origins of the
Jake Pugsley is in Year 13 at The Cotswold School, Gloucestershire.
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