Fred Hoyle

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Fred Hoyle, statue at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge

Sir Fred Hoyle (born June 24, 1915 in Bingley near Bradford , † August 20, 2001 in Bournemouth ) was a British astronomer and mathematician who was also a writer. He achieved international fame not least because of his scientific nonconformism and his provocative outsider theses, with which he questioned recognized doctrines and knowledge of astronomy and physics ( conservation of energy ).

Life and Scientific Work

A plaque in honor of Hoyle on the Bingley Grammar School building

After attending the Bingley Grammar School in Bingley , West Yorkshire , Fred Hoyle first studied mathematics at Emmanuel College , University of Cambridge . In 1939 he married Barbara Clark, whom he had only recently met. In the autumn of 1940, during the Second World War , he left Cambridge to work in Portsmouth in the field of radar research for the British Admiralty . Among other things, he worked out a method to determine the altitude of arriving aircraft . Two of his colleagues on this important war project were Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold , with whom he frequently and in-depth discussions about cosmology - a topic that increasingly captivated him. As part of the radar project, Hoyle was also able to travel to North America several times , which he also used to hold talks with astronomers. On the first of these trips he had learned about both supernovae and the nuclear physics concept of the plutonium implosion and noticed similarities between the two phenomena, which inspired him to write his first publication on the nucleosynthesis of supernovae.

After the war ended in 1945, Fred Hoyle returned to Cambridge University, where he initially lectured at St John's College . In the following years of his time at Cambridge (1945–1973) he rose to become one of the world's leading theorists of astrophysics due to the astonishing originality of his ideas, which covered an enormous range of topics . Between 1956 and 1965 he was also a member of the staff of the observatories of Mount Wilson and Palomar (formerly: Hale Observatories). In 1958, Hoyle took over the traditional chair of a Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge University. In 1967 he became the first director of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy he founded (later renamed the Institute of Astronomy , Cambridge), which, under his innovative leadership, quickly developed into one of the most distinguished institutions in the field of theoretical astrophysics. In 1972, the same year he was knighted for his services to science , Hoyle resigned his Plumian professorship, and in 1973 he also stepped down as director of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy, which meant he was not just on a regular salary but also gave up his secure position in the scientific establishment .

After leaving Cambridge, he moved to the Lake District , Cumbria , where he went on extensive nature walks and devoted himself primarily to his highly successful writing and nonconformist science projects, which were almost universally rejected by the scientific community . He also undertook various study trips to research institutions around the world. On November 24, 1997, he fell while hiking through the moors of western Yorkshire near his native Gilstead in a gorge called Shipley Glen. About twelve hours later he was discovered by a search dog . Seriously injured, he was taken to a hospital, where he spent two months treating his shattered shoulder and for pneumonia and kidney problems from hypothermia. After that, Fred Hoyle suffered from memory problems and other mental problems. In 2001 he finally suffered several strokes and died on August 20, 2001 in Bournemouth .

Early successes

The three alpha process

In one of his early works on the processes of stellar nucleosynthesis, he stated that a certain nuclear reaction  - the 3α process in which carbon is generated - requires that the carbon core must have a very specific energy level for it. Based on this, he made a prediction about the energy levels in the carbon core, in 1954 the Hoyle state was experimentally confirmed and could be calculated in 2011 with JUGENE . In 1957, together with Margaret Burbidge , Geoffrey Burbidge and William Alfred Fowler, he wrote the B 2 FH theory on the formation of light elements by nuclear fusion in stars.

Critique of the Big Bang Theory

While no objection to the discovery of the expansion of the universe by Edwin Hubble had, but he disagreed with the interpretation: He himself advocated, is that the universe is in a state of uniformity ( steady state theory , along with Hermann Bondi , Thomas Gold 1948/49), in which the continuous production of matter drives the expansion of the universe, as opposed to a universe that had an explosive beginning with a big bang with subsequent expansion. Hoyle himself coined the term Big Bang in a BBC radio broadcast in 1949 in order to summarize Abbé Georges Lemaître's Big Bang theory .

The proposed continuous generation did not provide an explanation for the appearance of matter out of nowhere and violates the law of conservation of energy. The microwave background radiation (1965) is explained by Hoyle by the scattering of starlight on finely divided matter in space. However, the further debate ultimately led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the Big Bang theory among astronomers and the rejection of the steady state hypothesis - but not by Hoyle. In 1993 he proposed with Jayant Narlikar and Geoffrey Burbidge an extension of the steady-state theory ( quasi-steady-state theory ). In the 1960s, he also developed Narlikar, a conformal extension of the general theory of relativity that fulfills Mach's principle .

catastrophism

In the 1990s at the latest, influenced by the work of Victor Clube and William M. Napier , Hoyle began to look at the history of the earth, mankind and civilization from a catastrophic point of view. The basic assumption of Clube, Napier and Hoyle states that the earth was not only hit by comets or comet fragments in the distant past , which was among other things the cause of drastic climatic changes. These impact events and their consequences are said to have had a far greater impact on human history than previously assumed.

In his book The Origin of the Universe and the Origin of Religion , published for the first time in 1993 , Hoyle expanded this model further and developed a periodic scenario of recent impacts, where he assumed such impacts at intervals of about 1,600 years and associated them with prehistoric and historical events.

Controversial theories of evolution

In his later years, together with Chandra Wickramasinghe, he also developed the theory that life originated in space and was spread in the universe by means of panspermia , and that evolution on earth was driven by a constant influx of viruses , those of comets would be transported to us.

Hoyle also aroused controversy when he questioned the authenticity of the fossils of the "primeval bird" Archeopteryx (which has been confirmed again and again by other finds), and denounced the failure to award Jocelyn Bell Burnell the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of pulsars to consider. His contributions to biology and paleontology are rejected by the experts as amateurish .

Fred Hoyle as an author

Popular scientific works

In the 1950s he made a series of radio shows on astronomy on the BBC that were collected in the book The Nature of the Universe , and he went on to do a number of other popular science books. In 1957 he was elected a member of the Royal Society , from 1958 to 1972 he was Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge , where he had been teaching since 1945, and from 1966 to 1972 headed the Cambridge Institute for Theoretical Astronomy, which he helped found, and 1971–1973 the Royal Astronomical Society . Most of the non-fiction books he published in the following decades dealt with astronomical and cosmological topics.

Science fiction

In addition to his scientific work and his commitment as a non-fiction author, Fred Hoyle also worked as a science fiction writer, where he wrote many of his books together with his son Geoffrey Hoyle . In his first novel, The Black Cloud , published in 1957, the earth temporarily comes into the area of ​​an enormous cloud of interstellar gas, which, to the astonishment of the scientists, turns out to be a highly intelligent form of life. The surprise of this cosmic wanderer is even greater, however, that intelligent life can also arise on a planet, because intelligent beings, as he tells mankind, usually arise in open space between the stars.

Hoyle's most famous work, A for Andromeda (co-authored with John Elliot , 1962) was also made into a television series, and his play Rockets in Ursa Major was performed at London's Mermaid Theater in 1962 . A trip to Fantasy - Genre he made with some short stories in 1967 as part of its SF anthology member 79 have been published. With The Frozen Planet of Azuron , The Energy Pirate , The Planet of Death and The Giants of Universal Park (all 1982 with Geoffrey Hoyle), he finally worked as a children's book author.

Quotes

“Orthodox biology in its overall structure [holds] that life came about by chance. However, as biochemists began to discover the awe-inspiring complexity of life, its accidental origin is clearly so unlikely that the possibility can be ruled out entirely. Life cannot have come about by chance. "

"The probability that life evolved from inanimate matter is one to a number with 40,000 zeros ... This is large enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution."

“We had… found that there are no intermediate forms in the Chronicle of the Petrifications. Now we also know why: mainly because intermediate forms never existed. "

Honors

Works

Non-fiction

  • The nature of the universe. Harper, New York 1950.
    • German: The nature of the universe , Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1951
  • Frontiers of astronomy. Heinemann, London 1959.
    • German: The limitless space: The advance of modern astrophysics into space , Droemer / Knauer, Munich 1963
  • Man and Materialism
    • German: Mensch und Materialismus , Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1961
  • Astronomy: a History of Man's Investigation of the Universe. Crescent, 1962.
  • From Stonehenge to modern cosmology. Freeman, San Francisco 1972, ISBN 0-7167-0341-6 .
  • Astronomy and Cosmology: A Modern Course. WH Freeman 1975, ISBN 0-7167-0351-3 .
  • The cosmogony of the solar system. Univ. College Cardiff Press, Cardiff 1978, ISBN 0-901426-85-7 .
  • with Chandre Wickramasinghe : Lifecloud - the Origin of life in the universe. Dent, London 1978, ISBN 0-460-04335-8 .
    • German: Die Lebenswolke: This is how the earth received life from the stars , Umschau Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979
  • with Chandra Wickramasinghe : Diseases From Space. Dent, New York 1979.
  • with Chandra Wickramasinghe : Evolution from Space: A Theory of Cosmic Creationism , 1984, ISBN 0-671-49263-2 .
  • The small world of Fred Hoyle - an autobiography. Joseph, London 1986, ISBN 0-7181-2740-4 .
  • with Chandra Wickramasinghe , John Watkins: Viruses from space and related matters. Univ. College Cardiff Press, Cardiff 1986, ISBN 0-906449-93-6 .
  • with Chandra Wickramasinghe : Archeopteryx - the primordial bird. A case of fossil forgery. Davies, Swansea 1986, ISBN 0-7154-0665-5 .
  • The Intelligent Universe , Book Sales 1983, ISBN 0-03-070083-3 .
    • German: The Intelligent Universe: A New View of Formation and Evolution. Umschau Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1984
  • with Chandra Wickramasinghe : The theory of cosmic grains. Kluwer, Dordrecht 1991, ISBN 0-7923-1189-2 .
  • Our place in the cosmos - the unfinished revolution. Dent, London 1993, ISBN 0-460-86084-4 .
    • German: life from space. Two thousand and one, 2000
  • The origin of the universe and the origin of religion. Moyer Bell, Wakefield 1993, ISBN 1-55921-082-6
    • German: Cosmic Disasters and the Origin of Religion. Insel, Frankfurt 1997, ISBN 3-458-16850-8 .
  • with Chandra Wickramasinghe : Life on Mars? - The case for a cosmic heritage. Clinical Press, Redland 1997, ISBN 1-85457-041-2 .
  • with Geoffrey Burbidge et al. a .: A different approach to cosmology - from a static universe through the big bang towards reality. Cambridge Univ. Pr., Cambridge 2001, ISBN 0-521-66223-0 .

Science fiction

  • The Black Cloud. 1957
    • German: The black cloud. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1958.
  • Ossian's Ride. 1959.
    • German: The secret of the city Caragh , Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1962
  • with John Elliot: A for Andromeda. 1962
    • German: A for Andromeda: Secret message from space. Goverts, Stuttgart 1967.
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: Fifth Planet. 1963.
  • with John Elliot: The Andromeda Breakthrough. 1965.
  • October the First Is Too Late. 1966.
  • Element 79. 1967.
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: Rockets in Ursa Major. 1969.
    • English: Missiles on Ursa Major. Heyne, Munich 1972
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: Seven Steps to the Sun. 1970.
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: The Inferno. 10/1973.
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: The Molecule Men and the Monster of Loch Ness. 1973.
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: Into Deepest Space. 1974.
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: The Incandescent Ones. 1977.
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: The Westminster Disaster. 1978, ISBN 0-06-012009-6 .
  • Comet Halley. 1985.
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: The Frozen Planet of Azuron. Ladybird Books, 1982.
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: The Energy Pirate. Ladybird Books, 1982.
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: The Planet of Death. Ladybird Books, 1982.
  • with Geoffrey Hoyle: The Giants of Universal Park. Ladybird Books, 1982.

literature

Web links

Commons : Fred Hoyle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patrick Moore : Hoyle, Sir Fred (1915-2001). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2009.
  2. ↑ Patrick Mason: Sir Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) , at: yorkshire philosophical society (accessed: June 8, 2013)
  3. ↑ Sir Fred Hoyle. at: Encyclopedia Britannica.
  4. ↑ a b Pegasos, under: Sir Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) ( Memento of January 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed: June 8, 2013)
  5. ↑ Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition - Honors and Medals , at: St John's College, Cambridge University (accessed: June 8, 2013)
  6. ↑ New calculations for the first carbon atoms in the universe weltderphysik.de
  7. ↑ Physicists solve fundamental questions about the formation of carbon derstandard.at, accessed on May 10, 2011.
  8. ^ Evgeny Epelbaum et al.: Ab Initio Calculation of the Hoyle State. In: Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 192501 (2011), doi: 10.1103 / PhysRevLett.106.192501 ; Retrieved May 10, 2011 @ arxiv .
  9. ↑ Jane Gregory: Fred Hoyle's Universe. World Scientific Pub, 2003.
  10. ^ Basil Blackwell: The Nature of the Universe. A Series of Broadcast Lectures of Fred Hoyle. 1950.
  11. ↑ Fred Hoyle - The father of the "Big Bang" is dead. On: Spiegel online. August 22, 2001 (Retrieved May 12, 2010)
  12. ^ Victor Clube, Paul Napier et al .: The cosmic serpent: a catastrophist view of earth history. Universe Publishing, 1982, ISBN 0-571-11816-X ; and: William M. Napier: The Cosmic Winter. Blackwell Publishers, 1990, ISBN 0-631-16953-9 .
  13. ^ Fred Hoyle: The Origin of the Universe and the Origin of Religion. Moyer Bell, Wakefield, RI 1993. ( Reissued 1997 ); in German: Fred Hoyle: Cosmic Catastrophes and the Origin of Religion. Insel-Verlag, 1997.
  14. ↑ Fred Hoyle. ( Memento of November 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on the University of Cambridge website.
  15. ↑ Fred Hoyle, NC Wickramasinghe: Evolution from Space. 1981, p. 125.
  16. ^ Member History: Sir Fred Hoyle. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 4, 2018 .
  17. ↑ 8077 Hoyle (1986 AW2) JPL Small-Body Database Browser
personal data
SURNAME Hoyle, Fred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British astronomer, mathematician and writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Bingley at Bradford
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 2001
Place of death Bournemouth