In October 1923, the New York Times made the announcement, “Doctor Hubble confirms view that they are 'island universes' similar to our own." Astronomer Edwin Hubble had just discovered that spiral nebula in the sky were actually stellar systems—other galaxies in our universe. This discovery, however, depended upon the work of a little-known astronomer, Henrietta Leavitt, a member of a group of women working at Harvard College in the early 1900s, who mapped the stars in our sky. Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky (2011) broke the silence of Leavitt’s significant contribution to science, while also revealing the work and passion of Harvard’s human “computers,” who created the star classification system still used in modern astronomy.

 

Hailed by the American Theatre Magazine as the most produced living playwright in America for the 2017 season, Gunderson enjoys writing about science, or what she calls “the stories of discovery, the unfolding of human knowledge, the democracy of method.” Her science-inspired work includes Ada and the Engine, The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful (and her dog!), Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight, and By and By. She feels that scientists make great dramatic characters because their lives and work resemble the journeys of real heroes. They have a clear objective (the goal of their investigation), an antagonist or obstacles they struggle against (cultural prejudice, lack of time, or nature’s unpredictability), and hopefully, arrive at a climactic moment of discovery that not only changes their scientific perspectives but also the way in which we understand our world. More importantly, Gunderson finds that female scientists are “doubly tested,” so their stories are “far richer in struggle, and far greater in triumph.” In Silent Sky, she beautifully uses dramatic oppositions between the individual and family, science and religion, men and women, work and passion, computation and interpretation, and sound and silence in order to illustrate the inner conflict between the head and heart.

 

Silent Sky explores the theory of relativity not only as a scientific principle but as a metaphor of how people navigate their world and relationships. By reminding us that we are in constant motion in our continually expanding universe, it sparks our wonder and charges our curiosity, encouraging us to look up at the starry sky.