The Glass Universe
E639469
The Glass Universe is a nonfiction book by Dava Sobel that chronicles the pioneering work of the women “computers” at the Harvard College Observatory who transformed astronomy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Glass Universe canonical | 1 |
| The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7050547 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Glass Universe Context triple: [Dava Sobel, notableWork, The Glass Universe]
-
A.
The Lives of the Stars
"The Lives of the Stars" is an episode of the science documentary series *Cosmos: A Personal Voyage* that explores the birth, evolution, and death of stars and their role in shaping the universe.
-
B.
The Lives of the Planets
"The Lives of the Planets" is an episode of Carl Sagan’s landmark science documentary series *Cosmos: A Personal Voyage* that explores the origins, evolution, and diverse characteristics of the planets in our solar system.
-
C.
The Astronomer
"The Astronomer" is a 17th-century painting by Dutch master Johannes Vermeer depicting a scholar studying the heavens in a meticulously rendered interior scene.
-
D.
La révolution astronomique
La révolution astronomique is a seminal historical study by Alexandre Koyré that analyzes the profound conceptual and philosophical transformations brought about by the Scientific Revolution in astronomy.
-
E.
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is a popular science book by Neil deGrasse Tyson that offers a concise, accessible overview of key concepts in modern astrophysics and cosmology for general readers.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Glass Universe Target entity description: The Glass Universe is a nonfiction book by Dava Sobel that chronicles the pioneering work of the women “computers” at the Harvard College Observatory who transformed astronomy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
-
A.
The Lives of the Stars
"The Lives of the Stars" is an episode of the science documentary series *Cosmos: A Personal Voyage* that explores the birth, evolution, and death of stars and their role in shaping the universe.
-
B.
The Lives of the Planets
"The Lives of the Planets" is an episode of Carl Sagan’s landmark science documentary series *Cosmos: A Personal Voyage* that explores the origins, evolution, and diverse characteristics of the planets in our solar system.
-
C.
The Astronomer
"The Astronomer" is a 17th-century painting by Dutch master Johannes Vermeer depicting a scholar studying the heavens in a meticulously rendered interior scene.
-
D.
La révolution astronomique
La révolution astronomique is a seminal historical study by Alexandre Koyré that analyzes the profound conceptual and philosophical transformations brought about by the Scientific Revolution in astronomy.
-
E.
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is a popular science book by Neil deGrasse Tyson that offers a concise, accessible overview of key concepts in modern astrophysics and cosmology for general readers.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | nonfiction book ⓘ |
| author | Dava Sobel NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| depicts | pioneering work of women at Harvard College Observatory ⓘ |
| describes |
classification of stars
ⓘ
development of stellar spectroscopy ⓘ use of photographic glass plates in astronomy ⓘ |
| featuresPerson |
Annie Jump Cannon
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin NERFINISHED ⓘ Edward Charles Pickering NERFINISHED ⓘ Henrietta Swan Leavitt NERFINISHED ⓘ Williamina Fleming NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
early 20th century astronomy
ⓘ
late 19th century astronomy ⓘ |
| genre |
history of science
ⓘ
popular science ⓘ |
| hasFormat |
audiobook
ⓘ
ebook ⓘ hardcover ⓘ paperback ⓘ |
| hasTitle | The Glass Universe NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| intendedAudience |
general readers
ⓘ
readers interested in science history ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Harvard College Observatory
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
history of astronomy ⓘ women computers in astronomy ⓘ |
| partOf | Dava Sobel bibliography ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 2016 ⓘ |
| publisher |
Penguin Random House
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Viking NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Galileo's Daughter
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Longitude NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| setInLocation |
Cambridge, Massachusetts
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Harvard College Observatory NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| subjectArea |
astronomy
ⓘ
history of technology ⓘ women's history ⓘ |
| subtitle | How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| timePeriodCovered |
early 1900s
ⓘ
late 1800s ⓘ |
| topic |
gender and scientific labor
ⓘ
history of Harvard College Observatory photographic plate collection ⓘ women in science ⓘ |
| writtenBy | Dava Sobel NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Glass Universe Description of subject: The Glass Universe is a nonfiction book by Dava Sobel that chronicles the pioneering work of the women “computers” at the Harvard College Observatory who transformed astronomy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars