Interesting letter in the September Physics Today (more catching up on the reading) from Sidney van den Bergh at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Vancouver about Edwin Hubble and Harlow Shapley, two huge dudes in early 20th century astronomy. (Hubble figured out that the there were other galaxies beyond our own, but he thought they were evenly distributed. Shapley noticed they were sorta clumpy, which turns out to matter a great deal.)

Van den Bergh tells us that Hubble originally trained as a lawyer, while Shapley “began his career as a journalist.” Good to see he thought better of it.