[HN Gopher] Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin discovered that stars are m...
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       Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin discovered that stars are mostly made of
       hydrogen
        
       Author : _Microft
       Score  : 23 points
       Date   : 2024-09-08 09:29 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.aps.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.aps.org)
        
       | _Microft wrote:
       | There is also a substantial article on Wikipedia about her if you
       | want to know more:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_Payne-Gaposchkin
        
         | Jun8 wrote:
         | I loved this bit:
         | 
         | "In her autobiography, Payne tells that while in school she
         | created an experiment on the efficacy of prayer by dividing her
         | exams in two groups, praying for success only on one, the other
         | one being a control group. She achieved the higher marks in the
         | latter group."
         | 
         | Assuming the result was statistically significant, what would
         | be the theory she used to explain the result? Evidently god
         | does not exist (it says she became an agnostic in later life).
         | But in that case wouldn't the two groups have similar outcomes?
         | Probably the thought of an outside force helping vs I'm on my
         | own thinking was the cause. Or God had other plans for Cecilia.
        
       | timthorn wrote:
       | A new play based on her life has just opened in London:
       | https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2024/the-lightest-...
        
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       (page generated 2024-09-09 23:00 UTC)