RPI’s Heidi Newberg — from the department of physics, applied physics, and astronomy — will review “The Glass Universe: How The Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars” by Dava Sobel on Thursday, Jan. 12, starting at 12:15 p.m.
About the book: “In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or ‘human computers,’ to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women’s colleges — Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates … Elegantly written and enriched by excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, ‘The Glass Universe’ is the hidden history of the women whose contributions to the burgeoning field of astronomy forever changed our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.”
Bring your lunch if you are on lunch hour.
Other programs
Drop-in help with the Gadget Gurus
Did you get a new smartphone, cell phone, tablet, iPad, Kindle or eReader this holiday season? Crack open the packaging, charge up your shiny new device and stop by the library for a friendly introduction to your new gadget.
One-on-one appointment blocks will be 15-30 minutes long, and will be first come, first served. Find us at the front information desk, right across from circulation, on Wednesday, Jan. 11, and Thursday, Jan. 12, from 9 a.m. to noon and 2 to 5 p.m. both days. If you are unable to attend on one of these days, please call the information desk at 810-0314 to sign up for a class or make an appointment.
My Home, My Castle
No one dreams of spending their “golden years” in a nursing home. Yet, millions of older adults do, simply because they can’t get or pay for the care they need at home. The consensus is that 70 percent of Americans age 65 and older will need Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS) at some point in their lifetime, but how many have planned for it?
Recently, the Society of Actuaries released new mortality tables showing increased longevity for 65-year-olds: 65-year-old males increases to age 86; 65-year-old females increases to age 88.8.
Join attorney Lou Pierro and care planning expert Katherine Rosenblatt for an informative and frank discussion about “longevity” planning to learn how you or your loved one can stay at home, maintain independence, ensure dignity, secure income and protect assets throughout your lifetimes. This seminar will be about being able to stay in your home, and making it your health care fortress.
You can come to either session: Wednesday, Jan. 11, at 10 a.m., or Thursday, Jan. 12, at 6 p.m. For more information, call the seminar hotline at 608-6988 or register online at www.pierrolaw.com/seminar-signup. Reservations can also be made at the library’s information desk at
810-0314.
Vision and Learning
On Wednesday, Jan. 11, at 6:30 p.m., Dr. Robert S. Fox, O.D. will present an overview of how vision relates to learning, including how vision therapy can help adults and children process visual information better and learn more effectively. Reservations are required; call the information desk at 810-0314.
— Joe Nash