Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Astronomers journey to some of the most inaccessible parts of the globe, braving mountain passes, sub-zero temperatures, and hostile flora and fauna. That’s on top of handling delicate equipment that’s worth millions. Theirs is a life of unique delights and absurdities - and one that may be drawing to a close. Since Galileo first pointed his telescope heavenward, astronomy has stood as a fount of human creativity and discovery. But soon it will be robots gazing at the sky, while we humans are left to sift through the data. In The Last Stargazers, Emily Levesque reveals the hidden world of the professional astronomer. Today’s discussion will celebrate human ingenuity and curiosity, and ask us to think twice before casting aside our sense of wonder at the universe.
Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2021; finalist for the PEN/ EO Wilson Literary Science Writing Award; and an Amazon Best Book for 2020.
About the speaker
Emily Levesque is an astronomy professor at the University of Washington. She has won the American Astronomical Society's Annie Jump Cannon Prize and been named an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow in Physics. She is the author of two academic works on astrophysics and has written for Physics Today. She lives in Seattle. @emsque
Astronomers journey to some of the most inaccessible parts of the globe, braving mountain passes, sub-zero temperatures, and hostile flora and fauna. That’s on top of handling delicate equipment that’s worth millions. Theirs is a life of unique delights and absurdities - and one that may be drawing to a close. Since Galileo first pointed his telescope heavenward, astronomy has stood as a fount of human creativity and discovery. But soon it will be robots gazing at the sky, while we humans are left to sift through the data. In The Last Stargazers, Emily Levesque reveals the hidden world of the professional astronomer. Today’s discussion will celebrate human ingenuity and curiosity, and ask us to think twice before casting aside our sense of wonder at the universe.
Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2021; finalist for the PEN/ EO Wilson Literary Science Writing Award; and an Amazon Best Book for 2020.
About the speaker
Emily Levesque is an astronomy professor at the University of Washington. She has won the American Astronomical Society's Annie Jump Cannon Prize and been named an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow in Physics. She is the author of two academic works on astrophysics and has written for Physics Today. She lives in Seattle. @emsque
