Attention Is Discovery

“Fans of Hidden Figures and The Glass Universe will appreciate Anna Von Mertens’s captivating portrait of Henrietta Leavitt and the Harvard Computers, who laid the foundation for modern cosmology at the turn of the 20th century. Blending complex science with human-interest stories, Von Mertens celebrates the constellation of women scientists who discovered how to calculate galactic distances and classify stars by chemical composition. The writing occasionally veers into textbook territory, but Von Mertens in­cludes vibrant illustrations and archival documents that help to bring these astronomical legends to life on the page. This deeply researched book is ultimately an homage to the process of observation and meaning making in science.”—Scientific American“Attention is Discovery… is not a straightforward biography. It does tell the story of Leavitt’s life and work, and is rich in photographic evidence of this work and the working life of the Harvard Observatory. But it also deliberately and interestingly explores Leavitt’s life through interdisciplinary perspectives, inspired by what astrophysicist João Alves terms the ‘Radcliffe fellowship experience’ … This book is an interesting read, a biography but also an exploration of how science and art can inspire one another.”—BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Anna Von Mertens is the recipient of a 2010 United States Artists Fellowship in Visual Arts and a 2021-2022 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Her exhibition Measure, presented at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, traveled to the University Galleries of Illinois State University and Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College.

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