The end of the 19th century had seen the beginning of the misconception of a war between Science and Religion, and much of the effort of the Church in the 20th century (including papal essays and the development of the Vatican Observatory) was dedicated to countering that idea. The strongest counterargument, of course, was the continued work of Catholics (including those in religious orders) in the field of science. Place of honor for this century, of course, goes to Fr. Georges Lemaire who devised what we now call the Big Bang theory.
‘Hidden Figures’ and the A.M.E. Church
Article 300 words Level: all audiences This is a very brief notice from the website of the Third District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It calls attention to the film Hidden Figures, based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly. The article states: The film… is the story of the three African-American mathematicians whose knowledge helped John Glenn to orbit the Earth. Two of the three phenomenal women were members of the AME Church, one was a graduate of Wilberforce University and two of them grew up in the 3rd District. Both Mary Winston Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan were members of AME churches. Click here to access the article.
Continue reading →30 Years of Papal Blessing for VATT
A post by Fr. Paul Gabor on the Catholic Astronomer website, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Pope’s approval to build the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope
Continue reading →A History of the Vatican Observatory
Article (PDF) 35 pages Level: all audiences This is chapter from the book The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Vatican. This chapter was written by Fr. Sabino Maffeo, a physicist with the Vatican Observatory since 1985, and is a condensed version of his book In the Service of Nine Popes. Click here to download the chapter.
Continue reading →Across the Universe: A Thousand Stars are Born
Article (blog post) 1200 words Level: all audiences A post by Vatican Observatory astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., on The Catholic Astronomer blog. Br. Consolgmagno discusses two conferences on star formation that were hosted by the Vatican Observatory: one in 1957, the other in 2013. The 1957 conference was attended by luminaries such as Fr. George Lemaitre and Fred Hoyle, who respectively invented, and named, the Big Bang; Jan Oort, for whom the cometary Oort cloud is named; and Martin Schwarzschild, of black hole “Schwartzchild radius” fame. The 2013 conference was, however, a much more diverse gathering. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →Crowe: Modern Theories of the Universe – from Herschel to Hubble
An introduction to the fundamentals of stellar astronomy, a history of astronomy, and an account of how the science of astronomy challenged traditional philosophical and theological beliefs with readings from the writings of scientists who contributed most significantly to the development of astronomy.
Continue reading →Deep-dish astronomy: First light for VATT
Article 150 words Level: all audiences Below is the text of a “News Notes” article from Sky & Telescope Magazine, July 1995, announcing the first use of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, or VATT: Click here to access this article via Ebscohost (available in many libraries). Click here to access this article via Archive.org. Deep-dish astronomy: First light for VATT Observing is now under way at the new Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona. At the end of January, Richard P. Boyle, S.J. (Vatican Observatory) and Austin B. Tomaney (Columbia University) took the first visible-light images with the 1.8-meter Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT). First among the $3-million instrument’s noteworthy attributes is its deep, “salad-bowl” f/1.0 primary mirror (S&T: March 1994, page 12). It was one of the first to be formed by spin-casting techniques developed at the University of Arizona. Such a fast primary requires the secondary to be positioned with micron precision to achieve proper focus. These inaugural images of the Crab Nebula in Taurus … Continue reading →
Evolution: A Case History in Faith-Science Dialogue
The relationship between religion and science has, in the course of three centuries, passed from one of conflict to one of compatible openness and dialogue.
Continue reading →Faith and the Expanding Universe of Georges Lemaître
Article 5000 words Level: high school and above This 2019 article is unique in that it is an article about a Catholic scientist, written by a Catholic scientist and published in a Catholic journal. The article is about Fr. George Lemaître, the inventor of the Big Bang theory. The writer is Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University, director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, and vice president of the Society of Catholic Scientists. The journal is the University of Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal. Lunine writes that On October 29th of 2018, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted to recommend renaming Hubble’s Law the “Hubble-Lemaître Law.” That such a vote would take place today—during a time when science and faith are portrayed in the media as implacable foes—speaks to the remarkable character of Lemaître himself, the Belgian monsignor and astronomer who made a number of fundamental contributions to the … Continue reading →
Farewell to the Mach Three Priest: Theodore M. Hesburgh (1917-2015)
Article (blog post) 1000 words Level: all audiences A post by Bill Higgins on The Catholic Astronomer website, reflecting on the life of Fr. Theodore Hesburgh and his connections to science and technology. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →Fr. John Kartje: Astrophysicist, Priest, Biblical Scholar, and Disciple of Jesus Christ.
A post by Fr. James Kurzinski on the Catholic Astronomer website, reflecting on his friend and mentor, a scientist priest recently named rector of Mundelein Seminary.
Continue reading →Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
Book 320 pages Level: high school and above This 2009 book, edited by Ronald Numbers, contains much that will be of interest to many readers. From the publisher, Harvard University Press: If we want nonscientists and opinion-makers in the press, the lab, and the pulpit to take a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion, Ronald L. Numbers suggests that we must first dispense with the hoary myths that have masqueraded too long as historical truths. Until about the 1970s, the dominant narrative in the history of science had long been that of science triumphant, and science at war with religion. But a new generation of historians both of science and of the church began to examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the values and knowledge of the actors themselves. Now Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed … Continue reading →
George Washington Carver – An Innovative Life
Book 32 pages Level: all audiences This 2007 book by Elizabeth MacLeod is for younger readers, and tells about the life and work of agricultural scientists and biochemical engineer George Washington Carver. Henry Ford described Carver as the greatest scientist living at the time. Then-senator Harry S Truman stated that “The scientific discoveries and experiments of Dr. Carver have done more to alleviate the one-crop agricultural system in the South than any other thing that has been done in the history of the United States.” Carver was a Christian who taught his students Bible classes as well as science classes, and who did not pursue profits from his discoveries because believed them to be a free gift from God. Click here to download a preview of this book. From the publisher, Kids Can Press: This title … introduces readers to the scientist, inventor and professor who became a symbol of African American success and interracial harmony. George Washington Carver was … Continue reading →
George Washington Carver: In His Own Words
Book 208 pages Level: high school and above This book is a collection of letters by George Washington Carver, edited by Gary Kremer and published in 1987 by the University of Missouri Press. One chapter of the book is focused on “The Scientist as Mystic: Reading God out of Nature’s Great Book”. Kremer writes that Carver— [N]ever separated the worlds of science and religion; he saw them as mutually acceptable and compatible tools for arriving at truth…. [He was] a deeply religious man who treasured the world of nature and saw himself as a vehicle by which the secrets of nature could be understood and harnessed for the good of mankind. From the publisher: George Washington Carver (1864-1943), best known for his work as a scientist and a botanist, was an anomaly in his own time—a black man praised by white America. This selection of his letters and other writings reveals both the human side of Carver and the forces … Continue reading →
Georges Lemaître and the foundations of Big Bang cosmology
Article 19 pages Level: high school and above This article by astronomer Simon Mitton of St Edmund’s College of Cambridge University provides an overview of the life and work of Fr. Georges Lemaître that contains sufficient detail to satisfy the reader who has interest in Lemaître but that does not get into the level of detail found in a full biography. The article was published in the journal The Antiquarian Astronomer in 2020. Mitton discusses Lemaître’s family and his military service in the First World War as much as he discusses his scientific work on what has come to be known as “The Big Bang Theory”. Mitton writes: On 1998 September 1, The Astronomical Journal published a spectacular paper announcing the discovery of the accelerating Universe…. The excitement at the time was palpable, and I vividly remember my cosmology colleagues in Cambridge exclaiming that ‘Lemaître’s cosmological constant is inflating the universe’. Overnight it seemed that a huge catch-up industry had … Continue reading →
Georges Lemaître: Father of the “Big Bang”
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer about Georges Lemaître, who devised the Big Bang theory.
Continue reading →Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy
Book (with accompanying video) 200 pages Level: university Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy (Berlin: Springer Verlag, 2012) edited by R. D. Holder and Simon Mitton, examines in detail the historical, cosmological, philosophical and theological issues surrounding the development of the Big Bang theory by Fr. Lemaître, from its beginnings in the pioneering work of Lemaître through to the modern day. From the publisher’s site: The year 2011 marked the 80th anniversary of Georges Lemaître’s primeval atom model of the universe, forerunner of the modern day Big Bang theory. Prompted by this momentous anniversary the Royal Astronomical Society decided to publish a volume of essays on the life, work and faith of this great cosmologist, who was also a Roman Catholic priest. The papers presented in this book examine in detail the historical, cosmological, philosophical and theological issues surrounding the development of the Big Bang theory from its beginnings in the pioneering work of Lemaître through to the modern day. This book offers … Continue reading →
Hidden Figures
Book 368 pages Level: high school and above Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race is a best-selling book (made into a major motion picture) about the world of engineering, science, and mathematics. The central figures in the book are four African American women—Dorothy Vaughn, Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Christine Darden—who were mathematicians, engineers, and computer programmers working at NASA Langley during the “Space Race”. All four were people of faith, active in their churches. Author Shetterly includes regular mention of church in telling the story of these women and of Langley. Indeed, a church (First Baptist Church in Hampton Virginia) appears in the very first sentence of the book. From the publisher, HarperCollins: Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding … Continue reading →
How to Search for the Truth
Article 800 words Level: all audiences An essay by George Washington Carver on science, nature, God, and truth. Carver interprets in a scientific sense the verse from John that reads: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
John Paul II on the Relationship between the Natural Sciences and Religious Belief
Article (with links to five Papal documents) 2300 words Level: university This article by Fr. George Coyne, S. J. (Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006) from the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science discusses Fr. Coyne’s understanding of the work of Pope John Paul II on the topic of faith and science; among the key documents is a letter from His Holiness to Fr. Coyne as director of the Vatican Observatory. Click here to read the full article at the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (includes many useful links). [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Katherine G. Johnson: Of NASA and of the Presbyterian church
Articles (3) Approx. 500 words each article Level: all audiences These are articles about Katherine G. Johnson, published in 2015-2017 by the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Johnson is one of the NASA mathematicians whose stories were told in the movie and book Hidden Figures. Click here for “PC(USA) member and NASA mathematician receives Presidential Medal of Freedom” Click here for “Real life ‘Hidden Figures’ mathematician is longtime Presbyterian” Click here for “Katherine G. Johnson: NASA Mathematician and Dedicated Presbyterian” Click here for “Presbyterian mathematician, Medal of Freedom winner Katherine Johnson dies at age 101”
Continue reading →Large-Scale Motions in the Universe
Book (PDF) 600 pages Level: university A proceedings of a Study Week on Cosmology held at the Vatican Observatory in 1987, edited by Vera Rubin (an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation and dark matter) and Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J. (Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006). This academic book, published by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, is primarily an example of the scientific work in cosmology sponsored by the Vatican. The authors include many of the most outstanding astronomers of the day, but the work itself is now some 30 years old and is mostly of historic interest. No explicit discussions of faith/science aspects to the question are discussed. Click here to access directly from the Pontifical Academy of Sciences “Scripta Varia”. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Lemaître: Science and Religion
To appreciate the contribution which Georges Lemai?tre made to the relationship between religion and science it is necessary to understand how the Catholic Church passed from a position of conflict to one of compatible openness and dialogue; the natural sciences have played a significant role in helping to establish the kind of dialogue that is absolutely necessary for the enrichment of the multifaceted aspects of human culture.
Continue reading →Mapping with the stars: Nuns instrumental in Vatican celestial survey
Article 1000 words Level: all audiences Emilia Ponzoni, Regina Colombo, Concetta Finardi and Luigia Panceri were all Sisters of the Holy Child Mary and were part of a global effort in the early twentieth century to make a complete map and catalog of the starry skies. Carol Glatz discusses these nuns and their connection to the Vatican Observatory in this 2016 article. Click here to access this article via Catholic News Service. Click here to access this article via the National Catholic Reporter. Click here for a version of this article from the Smithsonian. Click here for a well-illustrated version from CityLab. Click here for a brief mention of these nuns in a 1919 article entitled “Woman’s Work in Astronomy”, by Dorothea Klumpke Roberts, published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (courtesy of Google Books).
Continue reading →Marion Lee Johnson: “A Hidden Figure”
Article 500 words Level: all audiences This short article in The Christian Recorder (African Methodist Episcopal Church), discusses Marion Lee Johnson, a mathematician with NASA who worked on the Apollo program and who is currently a speaker on STEM subjects. The article was written in response to the 2017 movie Hidden Figures. The article notes that “Sister Marion Lee Johnson has been an active member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church since 1969 and a member of Mount Zion AME Church of Plainfield, New Jersey since 1985.” Click here for the article.
Continue reading →Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science
Book 304 pages Level: high school and above This 2015 book, published by Harvard University Press (HUP) and edited in part by Ronald Numbers, is a follow-up to the 2009 book Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion which was also published by HUP and edited by Numbers. From HUP: A falling apple inspired Isaac Newton’s insight into the law of gravity—or so the story goes. Is it true? Perhaps not. But the more intriguing question is why such stories endure as explanations of how science happens. Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science brushes away popular misconceptions to provide a clearer picture of great scientific breakthroughs from ancient times to the present. Among the myths refuted in this volume is the idea that no science was done in the Dark Ages, that alchemy and astrology were purely superstitious pursuits, that fear of public reaction alone led Darwin to delay publishing his theory of evolution, and that … Continue reading →
Over 400 Astronomers See Vatican Observatory
Article 175 words Level: all audiences A brief report from 1952 on astronomers visiting the Vatican Observatory. ASTRONOMY Over 400 Astronomers See Vatican Observatory VATICAN OBSERVATORY, one of the best-equipped astronomical institutions in Europe, was recently visited by over 400 astronomers from all over the world. They were members of the International Astronomical Union meeting in Rome, and journeyed to the Pope’s summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, where the observatory is located. Of particular interest were the spectroscopic laboratories, with equipment of advanced and modern design. New director of the observatory is Father Daniel J. O’Connell, who for many years has been director of Riverview Observatory in Sydney, Australia. Father O’Connell, whose astronomical education is international, spent a year once at Harvard College Observatory specializing in variable star research. Thus he was particularly glad to welcome Dr. Harlow Shapley, director of Harvard College Observatory, and others from Harvard to his new observatory. Highly important atlases of the spectra of the chemical … Continue reading →
Pioneering Women in Computer Science: Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller
Article 350 words Level: all audiences A short article by Denise Gürer on Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller, BVM, one of the first two people, and the first woman, to receive a Ph.D. in computer science in the U.S.* The article is an excerpt from a longer article in which Gürer discusses the work of various women who contributed to the field of computer science. [Click here to download PDF] *Gürer’s article states that Sr. Keller was “probably” the first, but a post by Ralph London on the blog of the Communications of the ACM, the journal in which Gürer first published her article, argues that Keller was indeed the first, along with Irving Tang, as both received their degrees in June 1965.
Continue reading →Planck: Driven by Vision, Broken by War
Book 258 pages Level: high school and above This 2015 biography of Max Planck, the founder of quantum mechanics, was written by Brandon R. Brown. Planck was a scientist of faith—“I consider it a grace of Heaven that belief in the Eternal has been rooted deeply in me since childhood,” he once wrote—and Brown’s biography includes this aspect of Planck’s life, along with Planck’s science, the many difficulties he faced, and the work of his friend, Albert Einstein. Click here for a preview, courtesy of Google Books. From the publisher, Oxford University Press: Max Planck is credited with being the father of quantum theory, and his work was described by his close friend Albert Einstein as “the basis of all twentieth-century physics.” But Planck’s story is not well known, especially in the United States. A German physicist working during the first half of the twentieth century, his library, personal journals, notebooks, and letters were all destroyed with his home in World … Continue reading →
Pope Paul VI at the Vatican Observatory for Apollo 11
Video 5 minutes Level: all audiences Good-quality color video from 1969 of Pope Paul VI at the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo during the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The pope is seen viewing the moon through an auxiliary telescope attached to the V.O.’s 1.0 meter Schmidt telescope, and then speaking publicly on the landing from that telescope. Most of the video is in Italian, but the last portion features the Pope offering a statement in English.
Continue reading →Popes and Astronomy
Selections from documents and speeches about astronomy including (among others) Leo XVIII on the foundation of the Vatican Observatory, Pius XII on the Big Bang and to the 1952 IAU, and John Paul II to Coyne on Science and Faith.
Continue reading →Priest Is A Member Of The Team Working At Nancay Research Centre (1959)
Video 1 minute Level: all audiences Film titled “La Voix du Soleil” (“The Voice of the Sun”) from British Pathé features a priest at work at an early radio telescope in Nancay, France (the Station de Radioastronomie de Nançay). The film concerns radio observations of the sun. Click here to access this video via British Pathé.
Continue reading →Progress on Mount Graham
Article 150 words Level: all audiences Below is the text of a “News Notes” article from Sky & Telescope Magazine, March 1994, announcing the dedication of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, or VATT: Click here to access this article via Ebscohost (available in many libraries). Click here to access this article via Archive.org. Progress on Mount Graham Two pacesetting telescopes were dedicated last September 18th at the University of Arizona’s Mount Graham International Observatory. One is the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT), a cooperative project with Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy; the other is the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT). Both are presently undergoing final alignment and calibration and will begin science programs this year. After years of contentious debate and judicial wrangling, the opening of these instruments is welcome news for university astronomers who had to overcome objections from such diverse groups as the Sierra Club, Native Americans, and government agencies. Mount Graham had been selected in the early … Continue reading →
Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson
Book 250 pages Level: all audiences Reaching for the Moon was written by Katherine Johnson and published in 2019 (by Simon & Schuster: Athenium Books for Young Readers), when she was one over hundred years old. Johnson was one of the NASA “computers” featured in the best-selling book Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women who Helped Launch Our Nation Into Space and the popular movie Hidden Figures. The book discusses Johnson’s work at NASA, but its primary focus is on her family, her Christian faith, and how those came together to help her and other African-Americans succeed during a time when they lived under both legal segregation and a constant threat of violence. From the publisher: The inspiring autobiography of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who helped launch Apollo 11. As a young girl, Katherine Johnson showed an exceptional aptitude for math. In school she quickly skipped ahead several grades and was soon studying complex equations with … Continue reading →
Robert Scherrer – Georges Lemaitre’s Contributions to Cosmology
Video 27 minutes Level: high school and above Cosmologist Robert Scherrer of Vanderbilt University discusses Albert Einstein, Vesto Slipher, Alexander Friedmann, Fr. Georges Lemaitre, and how the idea of the expansion of the universe came into being. The focus of the talk, given at the inaugural conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists, is the ideas and work of Fr. Lemaitre. Scherrer argues that Fr. Lemaitre was ahead of his time in a number of ways. Click here for an article from Our Sunday Visitor entitled “Catholic scientists discuss faith’s role in work”, on the first conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists—“Origins”—held April 21-23, 2017 in Chicago. Click here for the Society of Catholic Scientists “Origins” conference page.
Continue reading →Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories [with book reviews]
Book 369 pages Level: university Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories, is a 2003 book by Agustín Udías, S. J. of the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, Universidad Complutenese (Madrid, Spain). From the publisher: Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing. In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now … Continue reading →
Serving God and science
Article 2 pages Level: all audiences A 2001 article by Agustín Udías, published in the journal Astronomy & Geophysics. Udías reflects on the Jesuit scientific tradition in astronomy and geophysics, by considering those who were also Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society (Udías counts 31 Jesuit Fellows): Abstract: The Society of Jesus has a venerable tradition of scientific observation and enquiry, as has the Royal Astronomical Society. Their paths have frequently crossed over the years and this tradition of shared enquiry continues to this day. Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to access it via Astronomy & Geophysics.
Continue reading →Stanley Jaki, OSB: The Priest Who Questioned the Plausibility of a Theory of Everything (TOE)
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer about Fr. Jaki, with links to videos by Jaki. Arguing that the proper relationship between faith and science is that each discipline should strictly adhere to their own principles, Fr. Jaki strongly emphasized that the unique focus science has upon the material world makes it impossible to create a “theology-science” or “philosophy-science.”
Continue reading →Star-mapping Sisters
A post by Br. Guy Consolmagnoi on The Catholic Astronomer about four religious sisters in the early 20th century who played an essential role in producing the first photographic atlas of the stars.
Continue reading →Stars And The Milky Way
Book chapter (PDF) 8 pages Level: high school and above A chapter by Fr. Christopher Corbally, S.J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, for the book The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Vatican. Fr. Corbally writes “the really interesting details contained within a [spectrum] are revealed when light from a star is focused onto a narrow slit, which from there passes through a prism, and then gets focused again onto your eye or a camera.” Topics include ‘A History of Stellar Spectra’; ‘Spectra and Brightness’; ‘Classifying Stars’; ‘Getting to Know Our Neighbors’; and ‘The Simple Picture Gives Way to Surprises’. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Strong Force – The Story of Physicist Shirley Ann Jackson
Book 110 pages Level: all audiences This book by Diane O’Connell is a biography of Shirley Ann Jackson, the first African-American woman to obtain a Ph.D. from MIT (her field of study was nuclear physics). She went on to work at places including Fermilab, CERN, Stanford, and Bell Laboratories, and in the 1990’s was made head of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She later became president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. While the book is primarily about Jackson’s scientific career and the challenges she faced, it does discuss the role that church played in Jackson’s life, and her “strong belief in God”. Strong Force is published by the Joseph Henry Press, an imprint of the National Academies Press, and by Scholastic. It is written at a middle school level. The following is from Scholastic: Shirley Ann Jackson sees the unseen. She’s an expert in the invisible particles that make up everything in the universe, including you. Shirley Ann Jackson is a … Continue reading →
Studying the Earth’s movements
Article 1300 words Level: all audiences This article by John Walsh was published in the John Carroll University Alumni Magazine in 2016. It discusses the work of two Jesuit seismologists who worked at JCU: Fr. Frederick Odenbach, S.J., and Fr. Henry Birkenhauer, S.J. Click here to access this article directly from JCU Alumni Magazine. Click here to download a PDF of this article.
Continue reading →The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy
Book 380 pages Level: high school and above As suggested by our research team. This description is from the publisher: Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, and one which has repeatedly led to fundamental changes in our view of the world. This book covers the history of our study of the cosmos from prehistory through to a survey of modern astronomy and astrophysics (sure to be of interest to future historians of twentieth-century astronomy). It does not attempt to cover everything, but deliberately concentrates on the important themes and topics. These include stellar astronomy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at the time subordinate to the study of the solar system, but the source of many important concepts in modern astronomy, and the Copernican revolution, which led to the challenge of ancient authorities in many areas, not just astronomy. This is an essential text for students of the history of science and for students of astronomy who require a historical background … Continue reading →
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Hubble–Lemaître law
Article (2) 1900 words (total) Level: all audiences In October 2018 the International Astronomical Union voted overwhelmingly to change the name of the “Hubble law” (relating distance and velocity in the universe’s expansion) to the “Hubble–Lemaître law”, thus including the name of Fr. Georges Lemaître in the law. These are two articles from the prominent journals Science and Nature discussing the IAU vote. Click here for an article on the vote from Nature. Click here for an article on the vote from Science.
Continue reading →The Jesuit Contribution to Seismology
Article 4000 words Level: university This 1996 article by Agustin Udías of Universidad Complutense (Madrid, Spain) and William Stauder, Saint Louis University was published in Seismological Research Letters. Udías and Staude write: The contribution to seismology of the Society of Jesus as an institution through its colleges and universities, and its members as individual scientists, forms an important chapter in the history of this science. This is especially so in the early years of its development…. No recent or comprehensive work, however, exists on the topic. Recently, moreover, many Jesuit seismographic stations have been closed and the number of Jesuits actually working in seismology has been greatly reduced. To a certain extent, apart from a very few academic departments and research institutes associated with Jesuit universities, it can be said that this is a chapter which is coming to a close. The interest of Jesuits has moved in other directions and it is not likely that seismology will become again an important aspect … Continue reading →
The Montessori Method
Book 376 pages Level: high school and above This book by Maria Montessori was originally published in Italian in 1909 and translated into English in 1912 under the title of Scientific Pedagogy as Applied to Child Education in the Children’s Houses (the “Children’s Houses” being education programs for children in the slum tenements of Rome, run under the direction of Montessori). J. McV. Hunt, in a 1964 introduction to The Montessori Method, said that “Montessori was reforming pedagogy and basing her innovations on her own clinical observations of children”, as compared to American educators such as John Dewey, who was “attempting to foster social reform in schools… [based on] reformed Darwinism”. According to Hunt, interest in Montessori’s work surged following publication of The Montessori Method, owing to her successes in Rome. But then that interest rapidly waned, owing to the fact that Montessori’s work clashed with the increasing popularity of ideas such as the relative unimportance of school experience for … Continue reading →
The Outreach Programme for Science and Education at the Jesuit Colleges of Tamil Nadu in India
Article 8 pages Level: high school and above This article by M. Devasagayam, S. J., of the Department of Mathematics at St. Xavier’s College in India, highlights a variety of science education activities. It was published in International Symposium on Astrophysics Research and Science Education, published in 1999 by the Vatican Observatory. Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →The Santa Clara telescope fiasco
Article 8 pages Level: high school and above This 1999 article by John W. Briggs of Yerkes Observatory, published in Anni Mirabiles, A Symposium Celebrating the 90th Birthday of Dorrit Hoffleit, held 7-8 March, 1997 at Yale University, New Haven, discusses the efforts by Fr. Jerome S. Richard, S. J., to construct a large telescope at Santa Clara University, funded through the Knights of Columbus. Fr. Richard was a publicly popular figure, but the validity of his work was not always endorsed by scientific colleagues, and he chose poorly in selecting people to build the telescope. Abstract: In 1928 the University of Santa Clara built an observatory which was to feature a 60-inch telescope. The man behind the plans for the observatory was Father Jerome Sixtus Ricard, a Jesuit astronomer and meteorologist. Ricard was an outsider to the professional scientific community during his entire career, but he had enthusiasm, faith and promotional ability. However the 60-inch telescope was never constructed and Ricard died … Continue reading →
The Vatican Observatory
Video 5 minutes Level: all audiences A short video from the Vatican Observatory Foundation about the history and work of the Vatican Observatory, featuring interviews with members of the Observatory and views of their telescopes in Arizona and Rome.
Continue reading →The Vatican Observatory – Rome (1929)
Video (silent) 2.5 minutes Level: all audiences A silent newsreel of the Vatican Observatory, this was an item in Pathe Pictorial issue number 577. It features telescopes, Vatican Observatory personnel, and photos taken through Vatican Observatory telescopes. Click here to access this video via the British Pathé website.
Continue reading →The Vatican Observatory: In The Service of Nine Popes
Book (link to publisher) 429 pages Level: high school and above This book, written in Italian by Sabino Maffeo, S. J. and translated by George V. Coyne, S. J. (both of the Vatican Observatory), gives the history of the founding and development of the Vatican Observatory. From the web site of the current publisher, University of Notre Dame Press: The Vatican Observatory: In the Service of Nine Popes records the history of the Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana). It was originally published in 1991 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the observatory by Pope Leo XIII. This revised edition brings together many facts hidden in archival material, correspondence, previous publications on the observatory’s history, as well as fresh material derived from interviews. Of particular interest is new research on the difficult period in the observatory’s history as it moved from an institute struggling to establish research programs to a true astronomical observatory. The Vatican Observatory: In the Service of … Continue reading →
Tradition and Today: Religion and Science
Article (PDF) 12 pages Level: university Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, presents four case histories which indicate that the relationship between religion and science has, in the course of three centuries, passed from one of conflict to one of compatible openness and dialogue, to show that the natural sciences have played a significant role in helping to establish the kind of dialogue that is absolutely necessary for the enrichment of the multifaceted aspects of human culture, whether traditional or modern. He argues that the approach of science to religion in each of these periods can be characterized respectively as: (l) temptress, (2) antagonist, (3) enlightened teacher, (4) partner in dialogue. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Truth Cannot Contradict Truth (1996)
Article 3 pages Level: university In an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1996, Pope John Paul II noted that evolution is “more than just a theory”… Click here for a link to the English translation of his address and click here for a link to the original French text. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Commemorative Volume Jesuit Seismological Association 1925-1950
Book 357 pages Level: university The entire contents of this volume documenting the work of the Jesuit Seismological Association is available from the Saint Louis University Earthquake Center (SLUEQC). The book was written by Fr. James Bernard Macelwane, S. J. The first chapter is shown below. Click here for the entire book, courtesy of SLUEQC. Google Books features a partially-searchable “snippet view” preview of this book (click here). [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Two Vatican Savants Honored
Article 200 words Level: all audiences This brief article from the November 5, 1921 issue of America – A Catholic Review of the Week discusses Fr. J. G, Hagen, S. J., of the Vatican Observatory being honored. Click here for the original article, courtesy of Google Books. Two Vatican Savants Honored Attention is called in the Pilot to the recent celebration at Rome of the sixtieth anniversary of the entrance into the Society of Jesus of the famous Vatican Librarian, Father Franz Ehrle, “whose learning and zeal have been recognized by three Roman Pontiffs and who is well known throughout Italy for his studies and researches.” Father Ehrle entered the Jesuit novitiate at Gorheim in September, 1861. His connection with the Roman archives began in 1880 when he undertook a social investigation. In 1889 he published the first volume of his great work on the history of the Papal Library, a monument of careful research, and in 1891 he was made Prefect of the Vatican Library. … Continue reading →
What Maria Montessori Knew
Article 3000 words Level: all audiences In this article in the July 9, 2018 issue of America: The Jesuit Review of Faith and Culture, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry discusses Maria Montessori and her education method. Gobry writes that Montessori was the first woman doctor in Italy, a polymath who studied everything from mathematics to anthropology to philosophy at advanced levels, a scientist by training, and a devout Catholic and daily communicant. Gobry writes: The most important thing about Maria Montessori is that she never used the term “Montessori Method.” She always referred to her “method” as “scientific education” or “scientific pedagogy.” Why is this important? Every pedagogical method, whether “alternative” or “mainstream,” “progressive” or “traditional,” starts with an abstract theory (sometimes only implicit) of what a child is, how her mind works, how she learns. And it is starting from that theory that it deduces a practical method. Dr. Montessori, who was a scientist by training and never claimed to be anything more, worked the … Continue reading →
Who Discovered the Expanding Universe
Article 22 pages Level: university Historians of science Helge Kragh and Robert W. Smith provide an overview of the discovery of the expanding universe and who might be credited with making that discovery. They argue that, while Edwin Hubble is generally credited with the discovery of the expansion of the universe, and while a number of different scientists did in fact contribute to the discovery in significant ways, in fact Fr. Georges Lemaître discovered the expansion of the universe, insofar as he gave theoretical and observational reasons for it. (Lemaître would go on to become a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936, and to serve as its president from 1960 until his death in 1966). Hubble, meanwhile was ambivilant towards the whole concept of an expanding universe. Kragh and Smith also discuss why Hubble is credited with the discovery. They trace the history of how Hubble’s role in the discovery was elevated, “at the expense of everyone … Continue reading →
‘Hidden Figures’ and the A.M.E. Church
Article 300 words Level: all audiences This is a very brief notice from the website of the Third District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It calls attention to the film Hidden Figures, based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly. The article states: The film… is the story of the three African-American mathematicians whose knowledge helped John Glenn to orbit the Earth. Two of the three phenomenal women were members of the AME Church, one was a graduate of Wilberforce University and two of them grew up in the 3rd District. Both Mary Winston Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan were members of AME churches. Click here to access the article.
Continue reading →30 Years of Papal Blessing for VATT
A post by Fr. Paul Gabor on the Catholic Astronomer website, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Pope’s approval to build the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope
Continue reading →Across the Universe: A Thousand Stars are Born
Article (blog post) 1200 words Level: all audiences A post by Vatican Observatory astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., on The Catholic Astronomer blog. Br. Consolgmagno discusses two conferences on star formation that were hosted by the Vatican Observatory: one in 1957, the other in 2013. The 1957 conference was attended by luminaries such as Fr. George Lemaitre and Fred Hoyle, who respectively invented, and named, the Big Bang; Jan Oort, for whom the cometary Oort cloud is named; and Martin Schwarzschild, of black hole “Schwartzchild radius” fame. The 2013 conference was, however, a much more diverse gathering. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →Deep-dish astronomy: First light for VATT
Article 150 words Level: all audiences Below is the text of a “News Notes” article from Sky & Telescope Magazine, July 1995, announcing the first use of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, or VATT: Click here to access this article via Ebscohost (available in many libraries). Click here to access this article via Archive.org. Deep-dish astronomy: First light for VATT Observing is now under way at the new Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona. At the end of January, Richard P. Boyle, S.J. (Vatican Observatory) and Austin B. Tomaney (Columbia University) took the first visible-light images with the 1.8-meter Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT). First among the $3-million instrument’s noteworthy attributes is its deep, “salad-bowl” f/1.0 primary mirror (S&T: March 1994, page 12). It was one of the first to be formed by spin-casting techniques developed at the University of Arizona. Such a fast primary requires the secondary to be positioned with micron precision to achieve proper focus. These inaugural images of the Crab Nebula in Taurus … Continue reading →
Faith and the Expanding Universe of Georges Lemaître
Article 5000 words Level: high school and above This 2019 article is unique in that it is an article about a Catholic scientist, written by a Catholic scientist and published in a Catholic journal. The article is about Fr. George Lemaître, the inventor of the Big Bang theory. The writer is Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University, director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, and vice president of the Society of Catholic Scientists. The journal is the University of Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal. Lunine writes that On October 29th of 2018, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted to recommend renaming Hubble’s Law the “Hubble-Lemaître Law.” That such a vote would take place today—during a time when science and faith are portrayed in the media as implacable foes—speaks to the remarkable character of Lemaître himself, the Belgian monsignor and astronomer who made a number of fundamental contributions to the … Continue reading →
Farewell to the Mach Three Priest: Theodore M. Hesburgh (1917-2015)
Article (blog post) 1000 words Level: all audiences A post by Bill Higgins on The Catholic Astronomer website, reflecting on the life of Fr. Theodore Hesburgh and his connections to science and technology. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →Fr. John Kartje: Astrophysicist, Priest, Biblical Scholar, and Disciple of Jesus Christ.
A post by Fr. James Kurzinski on the Catholic Astronomer website, reflecting on his friend and mentor, a scientist priest recently named rector of Mundelein Seminary.
Continue reading →Georges Lemaître and the foundations of Big Bang cosmology
Article 19 pages Level: high school and above This article by astronomer Simon Mitton of St Edmund’s College of Cambridge University provides an overview of the life and work of Fr. Georges Lemaître that contains sufficient detail to satisfy the reader who has interest in Lemaître but that does not get into the level of detail found in a full biography. The article was published in the journal The Antiquarian Astronomer in 2020. Mitton discusses Lemaître’s family and his military service in the First World War as much as he discusses his scientific work on what has come to be known as “The Big Bang Theory”. Mitton writes: On 1998 September 1, The Astronomical Journal published a spectacular paper announcing the discovery of the accelerating Universe…. The excitement at the time was palpable, and I vividly remember my cosmology colleagues in Cambridge exclaiming that ‘Lemaître’s cosmological constant is inflating the universe’. Overnight it seemed that a huge catch-up industry had … Continue reading →
Georges Lemaître: Father of the “Big Bang”
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer about Georges Lemaître, who devised the Big Bang theory.
Continue reading →Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy
Book (with accompanying video) 200 pages Level: university Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy (Berlin: Springer Verlag, 2012) edited by R. D. Holder and Simon Mitton, examines in detail the historical, cosmological, philosophical and theological issues surrounding the development of the Big Bang theory by Fr. Lemaître, from its beginnings in the pioneering work of Lemaître through to the modern day. From the publisher’s site: The year 2011 marked the 80th anniversary of Georges Lemaître’s primeval atom model of the universe, forerunner of the modern day Big Bang theory. Prompted by this momentous anniversary the Royal Astronomical Society decided to publish a volume of essays on the life, work and faith of this great cosmologist, who was also a Roman Catholic priest. The papers presented in this book examine in detail the historical, cosmological, philosophical and theological issues surrounding the development of the Big Bang theory from its beginnings in the pioneering work of Lemaître through to the modern day. This book offers … Continue reading →
How to Search for the Truth
Article 800 words Level: all audiences An essay by George Washington Carver on science, nature, God, and truth. Carver interprets in a scientific sense the verse from John that reads: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
John Paul II on the Relationship between the Natural Sciences and Religious Belief
Article (with links to five Papal documents) 2300 words Level: university This article by Fr. George Coyne, S. J. (Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006) from the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science discusses Fr. Coyne’s understanding of the work of Pope John Paul II on the topic of faith and science; among the key documents is a letter from His Holiness to Fr. Coyne as director of the Vatican Observatory. Click here to read the full article at the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (includes many useful links). [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Katherine G. Johnson: Of NASA and of the Presbyterian church
Articles (3) Approx. 500 words each article Level: all audiences These are articles about Katherine G. Johnson, published in 2015-2017 by the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Johnson is one of the NASA mathematicians whose stories were told in the movie and book Hidden Figures. Click here for “PC(USA) member and NASA mathematician receives Presidential Medal of Freedom” Click here for “Real life ‘Hidden Figures’ mathematician is longtime Presbyterian” Click here for “Katherine G. Johnson: NASA Mathematician and Dedicated Presbyterian” Click here for “Presbyterian mathematician, Medal of Freedom winner Katherine Johnson dies at age 101”
Continue reading →Mapping with the stars: Nuns instrumental in Vatican celestial survey
Article 1000 words Level: all audiences Emilia Ponzoni, Regina Colombo, Concetta Finardi and Luigia Panceri were all Sisters of the Holy Child Mary and were part of a global effort in the early twentieth century to make a complete map and catalog of the starry skies. Carol Glatz discusses these nuns and their connection to the Vatican Observatory in this 2016 article. Click here to access this article via Catholic News Service. Click here to access this article via the National Catholic Reporter. Click here for a version of this article from the Smithsonian. Click here for a well-illustrated version from CityLab. Click here for a brief mention of these nuns in a 1919 article entitled “Woman’s Work in Astronomy”, by Dorothea Klumpke Roberts, published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (courtesy of Google Books).
Continue reading →Marion Lee Johnson: “A Hidden Figure”
Article 500 words Level: all audiences This short article in The Christian Recorder (African Methodist Episcopal Church), discusses Marion Lee Johnson, a mathematician with NASA who worked on the Apollo program and who is currently a speaker on STEM subjects. The article was written in response to the 2017 movie Hidden Figures. The article notes that “Sister Marion Lee Johnson has been an active member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church since 1969 and a member of Mount Zion AME Church of Plainfield, New Jersey since 1985.” Click here for the article.
Continue reading →Over 400 Astronomers See Vatican Observatory
Article 175 words Level: all audiences A brief report from 1952 on astronomers visiting the Vatican Observatory. ASTRONOMY Over 400 Astronomers See Vatican Observatory VATICAN OBSERVATORY, one of the best-equipped astronomical institutions in Europe, was recently visited by over 400 astronomers from all over the world. They were members of the International Astronomical Union meeting in Rome, and journeyed to the Pope’s summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, where the observatory is located. Of particular interest were the spectroscopic laboratories, with equipment of advanced and modern design. New director of the observatory is Father Daniel J. O’Connell, who for many years has been director of Riverview Observatory in Sydney, Australia. Father O’Connell, whose astronomical education is international, spent a year once at Harvard College Observatory specializing in variable star research. Thus he was particularly glad to welcome Dr. Harlow Shapley, director of Harvard College Observatory, and others from Harvard to his new observatory. Highly important atlases of the spectra of the chemical … Continue reading →
Pioneering Women in Computer Science: Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller
Article 350 words Level: all audiences A short article by Denise Gürer on Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller, BVM, one of the first two people, and the first woman, to receive a Ph.D. in computer science in the U.S.* The article is an excerpt from a longer article in which Gürer discusses the work of various women who contributed to the field of computer science. [Click here to download PDF] *Gürer’s article states that Sr. Keller was “probably” the first, but a post by Ralph London on the blog of the Communications of the ACM, the journal in which Gürer first published her article, argues that Keller was indeed the first, along with Irving Tang, as both received their degrees in June 1965.
Continue reading →Popes and Astronomy
Selections from documents and speeches about astronomy including (among others) Leo XVIII on the foundation of the Vatican Observatory, Pius XII on the Big Bang and to the 1952 IAU, and John Paul II to Coyne on Science and Faith.
Continue reading →Progress on Mount Graham
Article 150 words Level: all audiences Below is the text of a “News Notes” article from Sky & Telescope Magazine, March 1994, announcing the dedication of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, or VATT: Click here to access this article via Ebscohost (available in many libraries). Click here to access this article via Archive.org. Progress on Mount Graham Two pacesetting telescopes were dedicated last September 18th at the University of Arizona’s Mount Graham International Observatory. One is the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT), a cooperative project with Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy; the other is the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT). Both are presently undergoing final alignment and calibration and will begin science programs this year. After years of contentious debate and judicial wrangling, the opening of these instruments is welcome news for university astronomers who had to overcome objections from such diverse groups as the Sierra Club, Native Americans, and government agencies. Mount Graham had been selected in the early … Continue reading →
Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories [with book reviews]
Book 369 pages Level: university Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories, is a 2003 book by Agustín Udías, S. J. of the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, Universidad Complutenese (Madrid, Spain). From the publisher: Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing. In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now … Continue reading →
Serving God and science
Article 2 pages Level: all audiences A 2001 article by Agustín Udías, published in the journal Astronomy & Geophysics. Udías reflects on the Jesuit scientific tradition in astronomy and geophysics, by considering those who were also Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society (Udías counts 31 Jesuit Fellows): Abstract: The Society of Jesus has a venerable tradition of scientific observation and enquiry, as has the Royal Astronomical Society. Their paths have frequently crossed over the years and this tradition of shared enquiry continues to this day. Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to access it via Astronomy & Geophysics.
Continue reading →Stanley Jaki, OSB: The Priest Who Questioned the Plausibility of a Theory of Everything (TOE)
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer about Fr. Jaki, with links to videos by Jaki. Arguing that the proper relationship between faith and science is that each discipline should strictly adhere to their own principles, Fr. Jaki strongly emphasized that the unique focus science has upon the material world makes it impossible to create a “theology-science” or “philosophy-science.”
Continue reading →Star-mapping Sisters
A post by Br. Guy Consolmagnoi on The Catholic Astronomer about four religious sisters in the early 20th century who played an essential role in producing the first photographic atlas of the stars.
Continue reading →Studying the Earth’s movements
Article 1300 words Level: all audiences This article by John Walsh was published in the John Carroll University Alumni Magazine in 2016. It discusses the work of two Jesuit seismologists who worked at JCU: Fr. Frederick Odenbach, S.J., and Fr. Henry Birkenhauer, S.J. Click here to access this article directly from JCU Alumni Magazine. Click here to download a PDF of this article.
Continue reading →The International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Hubble–Lemaître law
Article (2) 1900 words (total) Level: all audiences In October 2018 the International Astronomical Union voted overwhelmingly to change the name of the “Hubble law” (relating distance and velocity in the universe’s expansion) to the “Hubble–Lemaître law”, thus including the name of Fr. Georges Lemaître in the law. These are two articles from the prominent journals Science and Nature discussing the IAU vote. Click here for an article on the vote from Nature. Click here for an article on the vote from Science.
Continue reading →The Jesuit Contribution to Seismology
Article 4000 words Level: university This 1996 article by Agustin Udías of Universidad Complutense (Madrid, Spain) and William Stauder, Saint Louis University was published in Seismological Research Letters. Udías and Staude write: The contribution to seismology of the Society of Jesus as an institution through its colleges and universities, and its members as individual scientists, forms an important chapter in the history of this science. This is especially so in the early years of its development…. No recent or comprehensive work, however, exists on the topic. Recently, moreover, many Jesuit seismographic stations have been closed and the number of Jesuits actually working in seismology has been greatly reduced. To a certain extent, apart from a very few academic departments and research institutes associated with Jesuit universities, it can be said that this is a chapter which is coming to a close. The interest of Jesuits has moved in other directions and it is not likely that seismology will become again an important aspect … Continue reading →
The Outreach Programme for Science and Education at the Jesuit Colleges of Tamil Nadu in India
Article 8 pages Level: high school and above This article by M. Devasagayam, S. J., of the Department of Mathematics at St. Xavier’s College in India, highlights a variety of science education activities. It was published in International Symposium on Astrophysics Research and Science Education, published in 1999 by the Vatican Observatory. Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →The Santa Clara telescope fiasco
Article 8 pages Level: high school and above This 1999 article by John W. Briggs of Yerkes Observatory, published in Anni Mirabiles, A Symposium Celebrating the 90th Birthday of Dorrit Hoffleit, held 7-8 March, 1997 at Yale University, New Haven, discusses the efforts by Fr. Jerome S. Richard, S. J., to construct a large telescope at Santa Clara University, funded through the Knights of Columbus. Fr. Richard was a publicly popular figure, but the validity of his work was not always endorsed by scientific colleagues, and he chose poorly in selecting people to build the telescope. Abstract: In 1928 the University of Santa Clara built an observatory which was to feature a 60-inch telescope. The man behind the plans for the observatory was Father Jerome Sixtus Ricard, a Jesuit astronomer and meteorologist. Ricard was an outsider to the professional scientific community during his entire career, but he had enthusiasm, faith and promotional ability. However the 60-inch telescope was never constructed and Ricard died … Continue reading →
What Maria Montessori Knew
Article 3000 words Level: all audiences In this article in the July 9, 2018 issue of America: The Jesuit Review of Faith and Culture, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry discusses Maria Montessori and her education method. Gobry writes that Montessori was the first woman doctor in Italy, a polymath who studied everything from mathematics to anthropology to philosophy at advanced levels, a scientist by training, and a devout Catholic and daily communicant. Gobry writes: The most important thing about Maria Montessori is that she never used the term “Montessori Method.” She always referred to her “method” as “scientific education” or “scientific pedagogy.” Why is this important? Every pedagogical method, whether “alternative” or “mainstream,” “progressive” or “traditional,” starts with an abstract theory (sometimes only implicit) of what a child is, how her mind works, how she learns. And it is starting from that theory that it deduces a practical method. Dr. Montessori, who was a scientist by training and never claimed to be anything more, worked the … Continue reading →
Who Discovered the Expanding Universe
Article 22 pages Level: university Historians of science Helge Kragh and Robert W. Smith provide an overview of the discovery of the expanding universe and who might be credited with making that discovery. They argue that, while Edwin Hubble is generally credited with the discovery of the expansion of the universe, and while a number of different scientists did in fact contribute to the discovery in significant ways, in fact Fr. Georges Lemaître discovered the expansion of the universe, insofar as he gave theoretical and observational reasons for it. (Lemaître would go on to become a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936, and to serve as its president from 1960 until his death in 1966). Hubble, meanwhile was ambivilant towards the whole concept of an expanding universe. Kragh and Smith also discuss why Hubble is credited with the discovery. They trace the history of how Hubble’s role in the discovery was elevated, “at the expense of everyone … Continue reading →
Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy
Book (with accompanying video) 200 pages Level: university Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy (Berlin: Springer Verlag, 2012) edited by R. D. Holder and Simon Mitton, examines in detail the historical, cosmological, philosophical and theological issues surrounding the development of the Big Bang theory by Fr. Lemaître, from its beginnings in the pioneering work of Lemaître through to the modern day. From the publisher’s site: The year 2011 marked the 80th anniversary of Georges Lemaître’s primeval atom model of the universe, forerunner of the modern day Big Bang theory. Prompted by this momentous anniversary the Royal Astronomical Society decided to publish a volume of essays on the life, work and faith of this great cosmologist, who was also a Roman Catholic priest. The papers presented in this book examine in detail the historical, cosmological, philosophical and theological issues surrounding the development of the Big Bang theory from its beginnings in the pioneering work of Lemaître through to the modern day. This book offers … Continue reading →
Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
Pope Paul VI at the Vatican Observatory for Apollo 11
Video 5 minutes Level: all audiences Good-quality color video from 1969 of Pope Paul VI at the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo during the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The pope is seen viewing the moon through an auxiliary telescope attached to the V.O.’s 1.0 meter Schmidt telescope, and then speaking publicly on the landing from that telescope. Most of the video is in Italian, but the last portion features the Pope offering a statement in English.
Continue reading →Priest Is A Member Of The Team Working At Nancay Research Centre (1959)
Video 1 minute Level: all audiences Film titled “La Voix du Soleil” (“The Voice of the Sun”) from British Pathé features a priest at work at an early radio telescope in Nancay, France (the Station de Radioastronomie de Nançay). The film concerns radio observations of the sun. Click here to access this video via British Pathé.
Continue reading →Robert Scherrer – Georges Lemaitre’s Contributions to Cosmology
Video 27 minutes Level: high school and above Cosmologist Robert Scherrer of Vanderbilt University discusses Albert Einstein, Vesto Slipher, Alexander Friedmann, Fr. Georges Lemaitre, and how the idea of the expansion of the universe came into being. The focus of the talk, given at the inaugural conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists, is the ideas and work of Fr. Lemaitre. Scherrer argues that Fr. Lemaitre was ahead of his time in a number of ways. Click here for an article from Our Sunday Visitor entitled “Catholic scientists discuss faith’s role in work”, on the first conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists—“Origins”—held April 21-23, 2017 in Chicago. Click here for the Society of Catholic Scientists “Origins” conference page.
Continue reading →The Vatican Observatory
Video 5 minutes Level: all audiences A short video from the Vatican Observatory Foundation about the history and work of the Vatican Observatory, featuring interviews with members of the Observatory and views of their telescopes in Arizona and Rome.
Continue reading →The Vatican Observatory – Rome (1929)
Video (silent) 2.5 minutes Level: all audiences A silent newsreel of the Vatican Observatory, this was an item in Pathe Pictorial issue number 577. It features telescopes, Vatican Observatory personnel, and photos taken through Vatican Observatory telescopes. Click here to access this video via the British Pathé website.
Continue reading →Evolution: A Case History in Faith-Science Dialogue
The relationship between religion and science has, in the course of three centuries, passed from one of conflict to one of compatible openness and dialogue.
Continue reading →How to Search for the Truth
Article 800 words Level: all audiences An essay by George Washington Carver on science, nature, God, and truth. Carver interprets in a scientific sense the verse from John that reads: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Large-Scale Motions in the Universe
Book (PDF) 600 pages Level: university A proceedings of a Study Week on Cosmology held at the Vatican Observatory in 1987, edited by Vera Rubin (an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation and dark matter) and Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J. (Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006). This academic book, published by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, is primarily an example of the scientific work in cosmology sponsored by the Vatican. The authors include many of the most outstanding astronomers of the day, but the work itself is now some 30 years old and is mostly of historic interest. No explicit discussions of faith/science aspects to the question are discussed. Click here to access directly from the Pontifical Academy of Sciences “Scripta Varia”. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Lemaître: Science and Religion
To appreciate the contribution which Georges Lemai?tre made to the relationship between religion and science it is necessary to understand how the Catholic Church passed from a position of conflict to one of compatible openness and dialogue; the natural sciences have played a significant role in helping to establish the kind of dialogue that is absolutely necessary for the enrichment of the multifaceted aspects of human culture.
Continue reading →Pioneering Women in Computer Science: Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller
Article 350 words Level: all audiences A short article by Denise Gürer on Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller, BVM, one of the first two people, and the first woman, to receive a Ph.D. in computer science in the U.S.* The article is an excerpt from a longer article in which Gürer discusses the work of various women who contributed to the field of computer science. [Click here to download PDF] *Gürer’s article states that Sr. Keller was “probably” the first, but a post by Ralph London on the blog of the Communications of the ACM, the journal in which Gürer first published her article, argues that Keller was indeed the first, along with Irving Tang, as both received their degrees in June 1965.
Continue reading →Stars And The Milky Way
Book chapter (PDF) 8 pages Level: high school and above A chapter by Fr. Christopher Corbally, S.J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, for the book The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Vatican. Fr. Corbally writes “the really interesting details contained within a [spectrum] are revealed when light from a star is focused onto a narrow slit, which from there passes through a prism, and then gets focused again onto your eye or a camera.” Topics include ‘A History of Stellar Spectra’; ‘Spectra and Brightness’; ‘Classifying Stars’; ‘Getting to Know Our Neighbors’; and ‘The Simple Picture Gives Way to Surprises’. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Studying the Earth’s movements
Article 1300 words Level: all audiences This article by John Walsh was published in the John Carroll University Alumni Magazine in 2016. It discusses the work of two Jesuit seismologists who worked at JCU: Fr. Frederick Odenbach, S.J., and Fr. Henry Birkenhauer, S.J. Click here to access this article directly from JCU Alumni Magazine. Click here to download a PDF of this article.
Continue reading →Tradition and Today: Religion and Science
Article (PDF) 12 pages Level: university Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, presents four case histories which indicate that the relationship between religion and science has, in the course of three centuries, passed from one of conflict to one of compatible openness and dialogue, to show that the natural sciences have played a significant role in helping to establish the kind of dialogue that is absolutely necessary for the enrichment of the multifaceted aspects of human culture, whether traditional or modern. He argues that the approach of science to religion in each of these periods can be characterized respectively as: (l) temptress, (2) antagonist, (3) enlightened teacher, (4) partner in dialogue. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Commemorative Volume Jesuit Seismological Association 1925-1950
Book 357 pages Level: university The entire contents of this volume documenting the work of the Jesuit Seismological Association is available from the Saint Louis University Earthquake Center (SLUEQC). The book was written by Fr. James Bernard Macelwane, S. J. The first chapter is shown below. Click here for the entire book, courtesy of SLUEQC. Google Books features a partially-searchable “snippet view” preview of this book (click here). [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Crowe: Modern Theories of the Universe – from Herschel to Hubble
An introduction to the fundamentals of stellar astronomy, a history of astronomy, and an account of how the science of astronomy challenged traditional philosophical and theological beliefs with readings from the writings of scientists who contributed most significantly to the development of astronomy.
Continue reading →Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
Book 320 pages Level: high school and above This 2009 book, edited by Ronald Numbers, contains much that will be of interest to many readers. From the publisher, Harvard University Press: If we want nonscientists and opinion-makers in the press, the lab, and the pulpit to take a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion, Ronald L. Numbers suggests that we must first dispense with the hoary myths that have masqueraded too long as historical truths. Until about the 1970s, the dominant narrative in the history of science had long been that of science triumphant, and science at war with religion. But a new generation of historians both of science and of the church began to examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the values and knowledge of the actors themselves. Now Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed … Continue reading →
George Washington Carver – An Innovative Life
Book 32 pages Level: all audiences This 2007 book by Elizabeth MacLeod is for younger readers, and tells about the life and work of agricultural scientists and biochemical engineer George Washington Carver. Henry Ford described Carver as the greatest scientist living at the time. Then-senator Harry S Truman stated that “The scientific discoveries and experiments of Dr. Carver have done more to alleviate the one-crop agricultural system in the South than any other thing that has been done in the history of the United States.” Carver was a Christian who taught his students Bible classes as well as science classes, and who did not pursue profits from his discoveries because believed them to be a free gift from God. Click here to download a preview of this book. From the publisher, Kids Can Press: This title … introduces readers to the scientist, inventor and professor who became a symbol of African American success and interracial harmony. George Washington Carver was … Continue reading →
George Washington Carver: In His Own Words
Book 208 pages Level: high school and above This book is a collection of letters by George Washington Carver, edited by Gary Kremer and published in 1987 by the University of Missouri Press. One chapter of the book is focused on “The Scientist as Mystic: Reading God out of Nature’s Great Book”. Kremer writes that Carver— [N]ever separated the worlds of science and religion; he saw them as mutually acceptable and compatible tools for arriving at truth…. [He was] a deeply religious man who treasured the world of nature and saw himself as a vehicle by which the secrets of nature could be understood and harnessed for the good of mankind. From the publisher: George Washington Carver (1864-1943), best known for his work as a scientist and a botanist, was an anomaly in his own time—a black man praised by white America. This selection of his letters and other writings reveals both the human side of Carver and the forces … Continue reading →
Hidden Figures
Book 368 pages Level: high school and above Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race is a best-selling book (made into a major motion picture) about the world of engineering, science, and mathematics. The central figures in the book are four African American women—Dorothy Vaughn, Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Christine Darden—who were mathematicians, engineers, and computer programmers working at NASA Langley during the “Space Race”. All four were people of faith, active in their churches. Author Shetterly includes regular mention of church in telling the story of these women and of Langley. Indeed, a church (First Baptist Church in Hampton Virginia) appears in the very first sentence of the book. From the publisher, HarperCollins: Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding … Continue reading →
Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science
Book 304 pages Level: high school and above This 2015 book, published by Harvard University Press (HUP) and edited in part by Ronald Numbers, is a follow-up to the 2009 book Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion which was also published by HUP and edited by Numbers. From HUP: A falling apple inspired Isaac Newton’s insight into the law of gravity—or so the story goes. Is it true? Perhaps not. But the more intriguing question is why such stories endure as explanations of how science happens. Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science brushes away popular misconceptions to provide a clearer picture of great scientific breakthroughs from ancient times to the present. Among the myths refuted in this volume is the idea that no science was done in the Dark Ages, that alchemy and astrology were purely superstitious pursuits, that fear of public reaction alone led Darwin to delay publishing his theory of evolution, and that … Continue reading →
Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson
Book 250 pages Level: all audiences Reaching for the Moon was written by Katherine Johnson and published in 2019 (by Simon & Schuster: Athenium Books for Young Readers), when she was one over hundred years old. Johnson was one of the NASA “computers” featured in the best-selling book Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women who Helped Launch Our Nation Into Space and the popular movie Hidden Figures. The book discusses Johnson’s work at NASA, but its primary focus is on her family, her Christian faith, and how those came together to help her and other African-Americans succeed during a time when they lived under both legal segregation and a constant threat of violence. From the publisher: The inspiring autobiography of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who helped launch Apollo 11. As a young girl, Katherine Johnson showed an exceptional aptitude for math. In school she quickly skipped ahead several grades and was soon studying complex equations with … Continue reading →
Strong Force – The Story of Physicist Shirley Ann Jackson
Book 110 pages Level: all audiences This book by Diane O’Connell is a biography of Shirley Ann Jackson, the first African-American woman to obtain a Ph.D. from MIT (her field of study was nuclear physics). She went on to work at places including Fermilab, CERN, Stanford, and Bell Laboratories, and in the 1990’s was made head of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She later became president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. While the book is primarily about Jackson’s scientific career and the challenges she faced, it does discuss the role that church played in Jackson’s life, and her “strong belief in God”. Strong Force is published by the Joseph Henry Press, an imprint of the National Academies Press, and by Scholastic. It is written at a middle school level. The following is from Scholastic: Shirley Ann Jackson sees the unseen. She’s an expert in the invisible particles that make up everything in the universe, including you. Shirley Ann Jackson is a … Continue reading →
The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy
Book 380 pages Level: high school and above As suggested by our research team. This description is from the publisher: Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, and one which has repeatedly led to fundamental changes in our view of the world. This book covers the history of our study of the cosmos from prehistory through to a survey of modern astronomy and astrophysics (sure to be of interest to future historians of twentieth-century astronomy). It does not attempt to cover everything, but deliberately concentrates on the important themes and topics. These include stellar astronomy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at the time subordinate to the study of the solar system, but the source of many important concepts in modern astronomy, and the Copernican revolution, which led to the challenge of ancient authorities in many areas, not just astronomy. This is an essential text for students of the history of science and for students of astronomy who require a historical background … Continue reading →
The Montessori Method
Book 376 pages Level: high school and above This book by Maria Montessori was originally published in Italian in 1909 and translated into English in 1912 under the title of Scientific Pedagogy as Applied to Child Education in the Children’s Houses (the “Children’s Houses” being education programs for children in the slum tenements of Rome, run under the direction of Montessori). J. McV. Hunt, in a 1964 introduction to The Montessori Method, said that “Montessori was reforming pedagogy and basing her innovations on her own clinical observations of children”, as compared to American educators such as John Dewey, who was “attempting to foster social reform in schools… [based on] reformed Darwinism”. According to Hunt, interest in Montessori’s work surged following publication of The Montessori Method, owing to her successes in Rome. But then that interest rapidly waned, owing to the fact that Montessori’s work clashed with the increasing popularity of ideas such as the relative unimportance of school experience for … Continue reading →
The Vatican Observatory: In The Service of Nine Popes
Book (link to publisher) 429 pages Level: high school and above This book, written in Italian by Sabino Maffeo, S. J. and translated by George V. Coyne, S. J. (both of the Vatican Observatory), gives the history of the founding and development of the Vatican Observatory. From the web site of the current publisher, University of Notre Dame Press: The Vatican Observatory: In the Service of Nine Popes records the history of the Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana). It was originally published in 1991 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the observatory by Pope Leo XIII. This revised edition brings together many facts hidden in archival material, correspondence, previous publications on the observatory’s history, as well as fresh material derived from interviews. Of particular interest is new research on the difficult period in the observatory’s history as it moved from an institute struggling to establish research programs to a true astronomical observatory. The Vatican Observatory: In the Service of … Continue reading →
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Commemorative Volume Jesuit Seismological Association 1925-1950
Book 357 pages Level: university The entire contents of this volume documenting the work of the Jesuit Seismological Association is available from the Saint Louis University Earthquake Center (SLUEQC). The book was written by Fr. James Bernard Macelwane, S. J. The first chapter is shown below. Click here for the entire book, courtesy of SLUEQC. Google Books features a partially-searchable “snippet view” preview of this book (click here). [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →