@gutenberg_org@mastodon.social Novel, early 20th century findings of a 24-yr-old woman graduate astronomy student, Cecilia Payne, turned out to be correct: stars are composed overwhelmingly of hydrogen and helium? Then senior astronomer, Henry Norris Russell, castigated her work as "clearly impossible," once again proving that progress in science often proceeds, "one funeral at a time." That is, it takes the death of a dominant figure to free a discipline from their egotistical grip.