DEBTHINK

Bio | Books | Trees

Growing up in Washington DC I learned the importance of public affairs and of good journalism.. So i chose a career in nonfiction writing and media. I also have a passion for nature, trees and sky.

Above, I enjoy one of my first views of the planet. Below, Why Harlow Shapley matters now, some of my Recent Presentations, a few Old Articles still cited, 7 Random Moments (photos), and official Résumé (pdf).

WHy the harlow shapley project

What do you know about the astronomer who discovered that our Sun is not at the center of our galaxy? Who pioneered the measurement of its enormous scale? Who wrote or edited three dozen books and thousands of articles over half a century, from Charles Lindbergh’s step off the first flight across the Atlantic to Neil Armstrong’s first step onto the Moon? Whose lectures engaged thousands of people from all walks of life with science? Who found jobs in the US for scientists fleeing the Nazis? Who defied the Right and Senator Joe MCarthy? Who from 1953 through the 1960s shared his conclusion that life has arisen and will arise on millions of planets beyond our solar system.“We are not alone,” Shapley declared.

Now I am the only person who knew Harlow Shapley well and am positioned, as a biographer and journalist, to present him as he was in real life. There have been biopics and biographies about other 20th-century giants such as Leavitt, Payne-Gaposchkin, Russell, Einstein, Hubble, Baade and Sagan. But Shapley has slipped from view, despite great fame in his lifetime.

He was brought back in the lively memoir by his daughter Mildred Shapley Matthews Shapley’s Round Table. See Close-up: Life with the Director. But mostly the literature repeats secondary tales from long ago. 

So with much help I devised the Harlow Shapley Project. It aims to present valid well-sourced accounts for the digital universe. Based at the hub site, we try to use multimedia to reach old and young, scholars and the public. See Project Goals on harlowshapley.org.

    The research has raised questions about the person we grandchildren knew as the family “star.” I discover Shapley’s impacts all over! Try Tonantzintla, Puebla, Mexico. See Mexico Awakening. Try the Visiting Scholars program of Phi Beta Kappa which is still going strong: 75 years ago Shapley was the first Visiting Scholar. In the 1956-57 academic year he taught at 25 underserved campuses and women’s colleges. See Shapley’s Legacies Part III. Try today’s Big Questions: Will we find life on exoplanets? If we find extraterrestrial life, how to respond? You might be helped by his luminous words on the question. See Shapley’s Legacies Part III.  

RECENT PRESENTATIONS

TREES

Tree Tour leader - April 2025, August 2024, October 2022, September 2021.

Many presentations to local and city groups on growing new city trees and city stromwater and road construction based on Restore Mass Ave program. includes DC Council Environment and Transportation Committee and Urban Forestry Advisory Council. See debthink trees. LINK

World Forum on Urban Forests, Embassy of Italy. Presentaton of RMA Awards to 7 Embassies and the Department of State, October 17, 2023.  World Forum on the RMA site has ceremony photos and Deborah’s remarks. 

  “Trees and Hope,”  Cosmos Club Geography and Land Use Group, Feb 11, 2022.

EARLY ARTICLES IN SCIENCE STILL CITED

Technology Creep and the Arms Race: A World of Absolute Accuracy

    Science  Vol. 201, NO. 436229 September 1978: 1192-1196

Nuclear Weapons History: Japan’s Wartime Bomb Projects Revealed

    Science  Vol. 199, NO. 432513 Jan 1978: 152-157

UFOs Will Not Just Go Away

    Science  Vol. 198, NO. 432216 December 1977: 1128-1128

Jason Division: Scientists Who Are Also Defense Consultants Attacked

    Science  Vol. 179, NO. 407202 February 1973: 459-505

7 RANDOM MOMENTS AlBUM

Bio pages like this leave out a lot. So nothing’s here about  parents, husband, children, grandchildren. Nor the friends and colleagues I have been lucky to have. Professionally I haven’t traveled to war zones or third world crises; I admire colleagues, especially women, who do. So here are 7 photos for my outwardly uninteresting life. One question lingers: Did the cat catch the frog?

RESUME

Education, jobs, boards, etc., to January 2020. Download here (pdf).