Word: shapleys
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Surrounded by perhaps the most captive audience he ever mystified, Harlow Shapley slowly explained to the pensive Congressmen that even small rocks contain tremendous explosive energy. Then Shapley suddenly announced that he had actual evidence, and quickly pushed a black and white stone onto the table bordered by his listeners. Every Congressman bolted backward as the guards unbolstered their revolvers. Several minutes passed before the flustered Congressmen heard the advice of a beamed Shapley for wording atomic energy legislation...
Although the demand for Shapley's knowledge has led him into a number of unusual situation's the former director of the Harvard observatory likes to disclaim most of the legends about him. "It's as Holmes wrote," he muses, "half he lies they tell about me aren't true." As Shapley talks, his frequent smile and darting eyes reflect his good nature. Students recall his rapid speech and movements, unslowed by the passing of 69 years. Shapley could stop his work now with full assurance that he would be remembered as one of the leading astronomers of this...
...Shapley's life, in fact, is a register of curiosity and energy. As a boy in Missouri, he enlisted as police reporter to earn money for college. "I had to cove some grisly sights," he reflects, "and I didn't like the idea of newspapers compromising ethics and advertising." Writing continued to intrigue him, nevertheless, and it was only a temporary shutdown of Missouri University's Journalism School that tempted him to try astronomy...
...temptation changed to a passion, and Shapley promptly published in "Popular Astronomy," won a scholarship to Princeton, and dashed through his Ph.D. in a year. His brilliant work attracted the Mr. Wilson Observatory staff, on which he served from 1914 to 1921. "During this period," Shapley recalls, "I developed my ideas for measuring the vast distance of the Universe." His theory prompted fellow astronomers to call him a "modern Copernicus" for the discovery that the sun is at the rim of the Milky Way Galaxy and not near the center. "I've been attacked for lots of reasons," Shapley remarks...
From the field of theory, Shapley stepped into administration as the Director of Harvard's Observatory. For 31 years he crusaded for challenging projects and placed the Observatory's telescopes as far away as Africa. He has also written numerous books, "not like my newspaper copy," Shapley says. "To make the book accurate I sometimes sit half an hour wondering whether to use perhaps, possibly, or probably...