Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe

Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe

Shohini Ghose
$29.95
Publication Date: October 17th, 2023
Publisher:
The MIT Press
ISBN:
9780262048316
Pages:
272
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Description

An exciting new title in the vein of Hidden Figures, which tells the inspiring stories of long-overlooked women physicists and astronomers who discovered the fundamental rules of the universe and reshaped the rules of society.

Women physicists and astronomers from around the world have transformed science and society, but the critical roles they played in their fields are not always well-sung. Her Space, Her Time, authored by award-winning quantum physicist Shohini Ghose, brings together the stories of these remarkable women to celebrate their indelible scientific contributions. 

In each chapter of the book, Ghose explores a scientific topic and explains how the women featured in that chapter revolutionized that area of physics and astronomy. In doing so, she also addresses particular aspects of women’s experiences in physics and astronomy: in the chapter on time, for instance, we learn of Henrietta Leavitt and Margaret Burbidge, who helped discover the big bang and the cosmic calendar; in the chapter on space exploration, we learn of Anigaduwagi (Cherokee) aerospace scientist Mary Golda Ross, who helped make the Moon landings possible; and in the chapter on subatomic particles, we learn of Marietta Blau, Hertha Wambacher, and Bibha Chowdhuri, who contributed to the discovery of the building blocks of the universe, and, in doing so, played a crucial role in determining who gets to do physics today.

Engaging, accessible, and timely, Her Space, Her Time is a collective story of scientific innovation, inspirational leadership, and overcoming invisibility that will leave a lasting impression on any reader curious about the rule-breakers and trendsetters who illuminated our understanding of the universe.

Some of the featured women scientists in the book

  • Williamina Fleming
  • Annie Jump Cannon
  • Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
  • Antonia Maury
  • Henrietta Leavitt
  • Margaret Burbidge
  • Mary Golda Ross
  • Dilhan Eryurt
  • Claudia Alexander
  • Joyce Neighbors
  • Navajo women of Shiprock 
  • Harriet Brooks
  • Marie Curie
  • Lise Meitner
  • Marietta Blau
  • Hertha Wambacher
  • Bibha Chowdhuri
  • Wu Chien-Shiung
  • Women of the Manhattan Project
  • Vera Rubin 

About the Author

Shohini Ghose is Professor of Physics and Computer Science at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. She is Director of the Laurier Centre for Women in Science (WinS) and the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering. She is the recipient of several awards, including a TED Senior Fellowship and selection to the College of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 2019, was among 25 women scientists worldwide featured in a UNESCO exhibit in Paris. She is the author of Clues to the Cosmos.

Praise for Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe

Included in Publishers Weekly's Fall 2023 Adult Announcements Science list

Selected as one of The Next Big Idea Club’s October 2023 Must-Read Books

“Shohini Ghose’s book Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe certainly fulfills its subtitle. The seven chapters are highly informative, each one having dramatic moments and discoveries. Ghose skillfully weaves together accessible descriptions of astrophysical concepts with the personal lives of the women scientists. I recommend this book as required reading for anyone teaching astronomy and astrophysics, as well as those with an amateur interest . . . By writing this book, Ghose is doing the work of rectifying some of these past wrongs.”
—American Scientist
 
“A disdain for misogyny past and present shines through in Shohini Ghose's rich history of women's underappreciated contributions to astronomy and physics . . . Her Space, Her Time [has] made an important contribution to this chain of histories, one that will no doubt lead to a clearer view of the science that lit up our universe.”
—New Scientist

“This book is truly for everyone, and I can’t overstate how much I enjoyed it.”
—BBC Sky at Night Magazine

“[An] engaging new book . . . Ghose explains complex concepts with clarity, understandable for the non-scientist, and the book is a passionate look at the women who’ve pushed our understanding forward in space exploration, radioactivity, the splitting of the atom, and subatomic imaging, revealing the crucial role women have played, bringing their achievements to light, and in doing, making a strong case for women’s place in science now.”
—The Boston Globe

“Her Space, Her Time will likely draw comparisons to other biographies of women scientists and mathematicians like Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly and The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel. But Ghose’s book, with its unique structure and writing style, earns its own space (pun intended) in the genre . . . Her Space, Her Time provides a digestible, informative starting point for making these scientists visible.” 
—Symmetry

“A fascinating book about relatively neglected pioneering women physicists and
astronomers who have made transformative contributions despite the overbearing
influence of masculine science and institutions.”
—Paradigm Explorer