"Our" astronmer in the NY Times today

This just in, from SLU physicist Aileen O’Donoghue. She’s been on sabbatical this year, but has been a semi-regular during the 8 O’clock Hour for years:

Hi,
When I was observing at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in March, George Johnson spent an evening with us and his article is in tomorrow’s NY Times Science section.
Cheers,
Aileen

Actually, now TODAY’s NYT. Here’s a nice quote from Aileen:

“It’s the real sky that matters,” she says. She describes how she makes her undergraduate students go outside and look at the Big Dipper at different times of the night. “They come back and say, ‘It moves!’ ” — words Galileo legendarily muttered after he was forced to recant. “You can tell students that the Earth rotates, but until they see that with their eyeballs, they’re not doing science,” she said. “You might as well be teaching theology and Scripture.”

And the Times gives Aileen’s memoir, “The Sky Is Not a Ceiling: An Astronomer’s Faith,” a nice plug too. As do we here in The Inbox.

Tags: st. lawrence valley