The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “astronomy”

We Are Listening: Diane Ackerman’s Ode to the Search for Life Beyond Earth and Our Longing for Cosmic Companionship
We Are Listening: Diane Ackerman’s Ode to the Search for Life Beyond Earth and Our Longing for Cosmic Companionship

A lyrical love letter to “the small bipeds with the giant dreams.”

read article

Planetarium: Astrophysicist Janna Levin Reads Adrienne Rich’s Tribute to Trailblazing Women in Science
Planetarium: Astrophysicist Janna Levin Reads Adrienne Rich’s Tribute to Trailblazing Women in Science

“I am bombarded yet I stand.”

read article

The Measure of All Things: How Two French Astronomers Nearly Lost Their Lives Revolutionizing the World with the Invention of the Meter
The Measure of All Things: How Two French Astronomers Nearly Lost Their Lives Revolutionizing the World with the Invention of the Meter

“The fundamental fallacy of utopianism is to assume that everyone wants to live in the same utopia.”

read article

Literary Constellations: Astronomy-Inspired Visualizations of the Opening Sentences of Beloved Books
Literary Constellations: Astronomy-Inspired Visualizations of the Opening Sentences of Beloved Books

From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to The Time Machine, data art meets literature.

read article

Encke’s Comet, Celestial Poetics, and the Dawn of Popular Astronomy: How Emma Converse Became the Carl Sagan of the 19th Century
Encke’s Comet, Celestial Poetics, and the Dawn of Popular Astronomy: How Emma Converse Became the Carl Sagan of the 19th Century

“The moment so long looked for may be nearer than we think, when, with a powerful grasp, like that of Newton, some watcher of the stars shall seize the secret of cometic history.”

read article

Hannah Arendt on Science, the Value of Space Exploration, and How Our Cosmic Aspirations Illuminate the Human Condition
Hannah Arendt on Science, the Value of Space Exploration, and How Our Cosmic Aspirations Illuminate the Human Condition

A timeless case against human solipsism and a clarion call for non-egocentric curiosity about the nature of reality.

read article

Poems of Space: Pioneering Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell Reads “Halley’s Comet” by Stanley Kunitz
Poems of Space: Pioneering Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell Reads “Halley’s Comet” by Stanley Kunitz

An ode to the transcendent meeting point of outer space and inner space.

read article

Hooked on the Heavens: How Caroline Herschel, the First Professional Woman Astronomer, Nearly Died by Meathook in the Name of Science
Hooked on the Heavens: How Caroline Herschel, the First Professional Woman Astronomer, Nearly Died by Meathook in the Name of Science

How a paragon of persistence in the face of hardship discovered eight comets and paved the way for women in science.

read article

The Art of Knowing What to Do in Life: Pioneering Astronomer Maria Mitchell on Purpose Beyond Expectation and Choice Unbounded by Convention
The Art of Knowing What to Do in Life: Pioneering Astronomer Maria Mitchell on Purpose Beyond Expectation and Choice Unbounded by Convention

On rising above the maze of conditions and conditionings that limit who we can be.

read article

Remembering Vera Rubin: The Trailblazing Astrophysicist Who Confirmed the Existence of Dark Matter and Paved the Way for Modern Women in Science
Remembering Vera Rubin: The Trailblazing Astrophysicist Who Confirmed the Existence of Dark Matter and Paved the Way for Modern Women in Science

“We have peered into a new world and have seen that it is more mysterious and more complex than we had imagined. Still more mysteries of the universe remain hidden. Their discovery awaits the adventurous scientists of the future. I like it this way.”

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)