Fred Hoyle Life in Science

Here is the cover of my book, with a neat photograph of Fred Hoyle

Fred Hoyle first time he used expression BIG BANG

My biography of the astronomer Fred Hoyle, a life in science, first published in 2005, is being re-issued in February 2011, in paperback, published worldwide by Cambridge University Press. There is an amazon.co.uk page for this book

The recording in which Hoyle introduced the expression Big Bang went on the air at 6.30 p.m. on 28 March 1949. This time the Radio Times gave his affiliation as University Lecturer in Mathematics. In that year, he was one of the very few academics invited to speak on the Third Programme who was not already a full professor.

Before the listeners heard Fred’s gruff voice, a plummy-toned station announcer read the introduction. ‘This is the BBC Third Programme’, he began. ‘In this talk Fred Hoyle gives his reasons for thinking that matter is being created all the time, so that the universe must have had an infinite past and will have an infinite future.’
Hoyle cut to the chase immediately, launching off with, ‘I have reached the conclusion that the universe is in a state of continuous creation.’ He reviewed the state of observational cosmology, frequently using the rhetorical device of posing a question and then answering it, question and answer both of course being phrased suitably to suit his stance.

An obvious problem with a radio lecture is the absence of visual aids. Hoyle went to great lengths to get over technical points with word pictures. He explained the Doppler effect by analogy with the fall in the pitch of the whistle of a receding train. Galaxies in the expanding universe he compared with dots on the surface of a balloon in the process of being inflated, the changing radius of the balloon being a measure of the flow of time. He had a lovely picture for the rate of creation of matter: ‘This means that in a volume equal to a one pint milk bottle about one atom is created in a thousand million years.’

Early in the talk he tackled rival theories of cosmology.

We now come to the question of applying the observational tests to earlier theories. These theories were based on the hypothesis that all matter in the universe was created in one big bang at a particular time in the remote past. It now turns out that in some respect or other all such theories are in conflict with the observational requirements. And to a degree that can hardly be ignored.

Hoyle, the hill climber, positioned himself to insult his colleagues, using a mountaineering analogy.

Investigators of this problem are like a party of mountaineers attempting an unclimbed peak. Previously it seemed as if the main difficulty was to decide between a number of routes, all of which seemed promising lines of ascent. But now we find that each of these routes peters out in seemingly hopeless precipices. A new way must be found.
At this point he included a last minute insertion, jotted on the script:
The new way I am now going to discuss involves the hypothesis that matter is created continually.

As to the method of creation, he invoked for his rapt radio audience, ‘groundwork that has already been prepared by H. Weyl, a German mathematician now resident in the United States’. Hoyle then tells his audience that it was not difficult for him to establish the consequences of the creation theory. The expansion of the universe receives a natural explanation as the receding galaxies move over the horizon (so to speak) while making room for the new matter. And then there is another down-to-Earth analogy: ‘Although no individual person lives more than about seventy years, the human species replaces itself through the births of new individuals replacing the deaths of others.’ And so it appears with the universe!

Fred Hoyle, a life in science

My biography of the astronomer Fred Hoyle, a life in science, first published in 2005, is being re-issued in February 2011, in paperback, published worldwide by Cambridge University Press. There is an amazon.co.uk page for this book and there are two customer reviews

In this blog I will now run extracts from the book.

The extract here is from the first chapter:
On 19 August 1972, Fred Hoyle sat in his office at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge for the last time. His summer had been busy. A record number of academic visitors had come to the Institute to benefit from summer conferences, collaborations, lectures and discussions. He had fretted to make sure the Institute would be financed securely for the next five years. Just three weeks earlier, the Institute of Astronomy had been born through a merger of two astronomy departments, after the university had decided to join the historic Observatories established in 1823 with the pioneering Institute of Theoretical Astronomy founded by Hoyle in 1965. Hoyle had been the head of Theoretical Astronomy for seven years, but now he had a new boss, because the university had not chosen him as the Director of the combined Institute.
For decades Hoyle had been the best-known astrophysicist in Britain. His output of technical papers was prodigious. But he never confined himself to the ivory towers of academia. A gifted populariser, he could make the most profound intellectual puzzles into entertaining radio talks and lucid television programmes. Fred Hoyle’s broadcasts and books influenced many of us who were drawn into astronomy. Most years he wrote a book, sometimes two. The sweep of his accomplishment as a writer covered a spectrum from popular books to technical monographs. Imaginative ideas that were too speculative for journal papers and serious books were cleverly developed to be aired in the guise of science fiction.
Despite his fame and standing, matters in Cambridge had somehow unravelled in the past year so that, as Hoyle put it, ‘now I really did want to be done with it’.
Even when the tea drinkers had drifted back to their offices, Hoyle still felt unable to make a break for it, not wishing to endure the embarrassment of further handshakes, eye contact or best wishes. By early evening the Institute building was finally empty. The time to depart had come. He would head straight for the main door and be done with the Institute for ever. He took a last look round the office and, as an afterthought, picked up the inky blotter on the desk as a memento. He seldom used ballpoint pens, always choosing to write confidently with a fountain pen and rarely revising manuscript drafts. Just as he left the office, which was at the end of a long corridor and some distance from the front door, he changed his mind about bolting for the exit. Instead he took a nostalgic tour of the building, his pride and joy. Though founded by him, funded by his pleas for cash, and populated by his handpicked team of research astronomers, it welcomed his presence no longer.

Biography Fred Hoyle cosmologist, astronomer, controversialist

My 2005 biography of astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle (1915 - 2001) is to be issued by Cambridge University Press in paperback early in 2011. Title is Fred Hoyle, a life in science.

I See the Moon on 7 October 2010

An engaging astronomy book for youngest readers by Jacqueline Mitton is published in the UK 7 October 2010 (and is available worldwide from amazon). From the author of bestseller The Zoo in the Sky this new book approaches observing the Moon through the eyes of animals that children love. Polar Bear sees a Ring Around the Moon, Beaver sees the orange Moon in lunar eclipse, Tiger watched the crescent Moon. What's the Moon like tonight. Turn the pages with a very young star struck child to see the enchanting story of the Moon's phases. Find more here and follow the links on that page.

I See the Moon, astronomy for young readers

Jacqueline Mitton's latest illustrated book for youngest readers is published October 7 2010. "I see the Moon" is a wonderful book in which the child sees the Moon through the eyes of several animals: Owl, Polar Bear, Koala, Tiger, Fox, and so on.

What is the Moon like tonight? Turn the pages of this book to see the many enchanting phases - from a horned crescent to the plump faced Man in the Moon, from the icy crystal ring around the Moon to the dark orange eclipse - watched by Owl, Beaver, Koala, and Spider Monkey

Brief science notes make this a perfect introduction to the night sky for very young readers

USA:
http://www.amazon.com/I-See-Moon-Jacqueline-Mitton/dp/1845076338/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281371593&sr=8-1

UK: http://bit.ly/cuXrAZ

Queen Mary 2 astronomy lectures

I am all aboard Queen Mary 2 October 19 - October 25 2010 as Royal Astronomical Society guest lecturer on astronomy for Cunard's enrichment programme

Stephen Hawking, God, philosophy,science and religion

My Cambridge colleague Stephen Hawking is front page news with his comment that the originof the universe does not require a supernatural creator. This is all part of a marketing push by the publisher of his latest book,and follows a trend set by Richard Dawkins, Steven Weinberg, and Pierre-Simon Laplace (Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.' "I had no need of that hypothesis.")

But has Stephen said anything new? I have not read the book, but the news coverage fails to mention that the anthropic principle, for example, was first put forward by one of Hawking's Cambridge colleagues about 30 years ago. There's nothing remotely new in the observation that the grand total energy content of the universe can be zero. In the late 1920s the Cambridge astrophysicist Eddington had a model in which a primeval atom is static and unchanging for eons until suddenly bursting into life explosively. So the application of quantum ideas to cosmology has along and respectable history.

I'm curious about Stephen's attack on philosophers. Perhaps modern philosophers have become too introverted for his taste. Cosmology was started 2500 years ago by philosopher-geometers who broke away from the magical philosophy of Egypt and Mesopotamia

You can read my take on the recent history of cosmology at Cambridge in my biography of Fred Hoyle, the astronomer who rjected the Big Bang. http://bit.ly/6rvVr

There's a .ppt slide show on Hoyle on this site: http://bit.ly.TOTast

Panspermia in the International Journal of Astrobiology

Folks we have a hot paper! Panspermia, comets, Chandra Wickramasinghe (Cardiff)

It is in the news

panspermia is big news

Bizarre paper submitted to International Journal Astrobiology

Having spent most of my career as an editor of books and journals on astronomy, I get my fair share of nutty proposals. Six weeks ago I had a book proposal explaining the expansion of the universe as being due to misinterpreting redshifts as Doppler shifts rather than "tired light". But today I received the ultimate nutty paper for the International Journal of Astrobiology. It was all about a meteorite that contained fossilised blood vessels. I am not making this up: fossil blood vessels in a meteorite. A mere glance at the photographs confirmed that the object in question was slag. So another paper for my growing rejection pile!

Galileo and the language of science

Galileo's observing notes for 1610 begin in Italian. Clearly he is writing little memos for his own interest. He discovered the moons of Jupiter on 7 January 1610 he switched to Latin after 12 January. Latin of course was the language used by all savants, natural philosophers, and mathematicians until the end of the 18th century. Copernicus, Mewton, and Descartes wrote in Latin in order to reach an international audience. Galileo wrote books in Italian and Latin. For example, the famous Dialogue of the Two World systems, published in 1632, and which directly led to his trial in 1633, was Italian because he wished to reach a wide lay audience in his home country. The Starry Message (Sidereus Nuncius) published in 1610 is in Latin because it contained revolutionary ideas, and he wanted to reach an international readership of natural philosophers. In terms of the history of science communication, Galileo is remarkable because he writes popular stuff in Italian and serious stuff in Latin

For a modern take on communicating the new astronomy to a variety of audiences see http://bit.ly/TOTast

Interested in Sidereus Nuncius? Buy it here

Galileo has observed Jupiter's moons for two weeks

400 years ago tonight marks the first two weeks of Galileo's observations of Jupiter's four moons. By now he has seen the moons play hide and seek many times -- going into and emerging from eclipse by the giant planet Jupiter. He is absolutely convinced that the moons are part of Jupiter's system. However, in his observing notes he is not yet speculating about what his observations indicate. He's demonstrating great restraint. His notes show excellent observation of the application of the scientific method: observe, acquire data of the highest quality, write it all down

My website for Total Astronomy media services

Galileo sees all four again

15 January 1610. Galileo can't wait for evening twilight. He was clouded out last night, but tonight, three hours after sunset, he points his spyglass at Jupiter once again and sees all four of the companions, all to the west of Jupiter. Four hours later ('the seventh hour', after midnight) the visible companions are three in number. He stays up another hour and spies two of the companions in conjunction

I keep having toremind myself that the diagrawms in Sidereus Nuncius are the telescope view, which is inverted -- east is right and west is left in Galileo's thumbnails

bit.ly.TOTast

Galileo sees four moons for the first time

Yesterday, minus 400 years, on 13 January 1610, Galileo saw all four moons of Jupiter for the first time. He wrote that all four were of the same magnitude and far outshone the background field stars

http://bit.ly/TOTast

Galileo sees a star 'appear' while observing Jupiter

So the next night, 400 years ago tonight, Galileo looks at Jupiter one hour after sunset. He can see two bright stars parellel to the ecliptic, one east of Jupiter and one to the west. A couple of hours later he spies a third object, quite dim, 'almost touching Jupiter'. By now he realises that he is making a discovery of momentous importance

He gets a new surprise the next day.

Stay tuned by following this blog. I will be covering Galileo's observations through to early March 1610. All blogs will be concise. Comments on the blog aare most welcome


Simon Mitton
http://bit.ly/TOTast

Galileo realises that he has discovered worlds orbiting Jupiter!

Exactly 400 years ago tonight* Galileo sees two stars to the east of Jupiter, one of which is twice as bright as last night. This is the night on which he is amazed to accept that the only explanation of his observations is "I have now accepted without the shadow of doubt that there were in the heavens three stars wandering about Jupiter, just as Mercury and Venus go round the Sun"

That folks is truly awesome. Having observed Jupiter on just four nights he reaches the correct conclusion that the Copernican system applies to Jupiter just as it applies to the Sun

Source of this information is a new translation of Sidereus Nuncius http://bit.ly/7WsibK

Editors, producers, media folk etc can contact me through my website http://bit.ly/TOTast

Galileo is now completely baffled

So, last night, 9 January 1610, Galileo was clouded out. 400 years ago tonight it was clear in Venice, so he turned his 20x power spyglass to Jupiter once more. He can see only two starlets! One has disappeared or is hiding. At this stage he cannot figure out what's happening. Remember, he has only three observations, and his telescope does not have setting circles or anything fancy like that. With three observations spanning just four nights he cannot yet rule out the weird possibility that there is something irregular about Jupiter's motion, an irregularity that would not be detectable to a naked eye astronomer. He's also intrigued by the fact that these unpredictable starlets are on a line parallel to the ecliptic. He actually calls them big stars because they seem so bright through his telescope.

Media industry and other followers can contact me through my website http://bit.ly/TOTast

I have an interview about Galileo's discoveries of 1610 with BBC Radio 4 coming in February. I am interested in further commissions / talks / science writing

Galileo gets clouded out!

So having spied three starlets close to Jupiter, Galileo was anxious totake another peek on this date, 9 January, exactly 400 years ago today. But he was disappointed --clouded out. It happens to us all. I have been clouded out at three total solar eclipses. Stay tuned for tomorrow-- the starlets are playing hide and seek

Links: follow the links in yesterday's blog

Galileo asks: did Jupiter move east last night?

On 8 January 1610 Fate compelled Galileo to take his second look at Jupiter. This time all three little stars were west of Jupiter, whereas the night before two of them were east of Jupiter. That riased a huge question in his mind: Had Jupiter moved eastwards since the 7 January? Such a proper motion would be entirely at odds with the computations of astronomers.

My source is a new translation of Sidereus Nuncius http://bit.ly/7WsibK

Media followers, editors, etc can find me at http://bit.ly/TOTast

Galileo: 400th anniversary Moons of Jupiter

Exactly four hundred years ago today (ignoring the effect of calendar reform) Galileo first spied three stars close to Jupiter: two to the east and one to the west. On his first sighting he could not, of course, note anything unusual (his telescope could see millions of stars), but they caused him surprise because they were in a straight line parallel to the ecliptic.

Come back tomorrow to see what happened next!

Links and acknowledgement can be found on blogs below

Galileo: seeing stars to magnitude 12

In Sidereus Nuncius (1610), Galileo writes that his telescope allows him to see a further six orders of magnitude. The Greek astronomer Hipparchus devised the magnitude system in about 150 BC. The brightest stars were first nagnitude and the faintest visible to the naked eye sixth magnitude. A first magnitude star emits 100 times the light of a sixth magnitude star. Ptolemy uses this convention in the Almagest.

Galileo's telescope showed stars frommag 7 to mag 12. The light from a mag 12 stars is 10,000 times fainter than mag 1. Galileo described the 7 - 12 mag stars as "so numerous they are almost beyond belief.

Source of this information: follow the links in yesterday's blog

Galileo gets a pay rise

On 24 August 1609, just over 400 years ago, Galileo visited the Ducal Palace in Venice to present a spyglass (telescope) to the Doge. At this date Galileo has yet to turn his telescope to the heavens. His accompanying letter assigned the copyright to the Venetian Republic. He explained that the spyglass could be used tosee approaching enemy boats at muchgreater distance thanbyeye alone, allowing more time "for engagement, pursuit or flight".

The chairmanship of the Venetian Senate rotated weekly. One of Galileo's chums had the chair that week. In 1608 he had the University of Padua increase Galileo's salary from 160 florins to 320 florins a year payable in advance. On 25 August this influential supporter, Antonio Priuli, had the Senate grant Galileo tenure for life, and an increase in salary from 320 florins to 1000 florins, the highest salary the university ever paid to a professor of mathematics

My source of this information http://bit.ly/7WsibK

Media followers who would like help to cover Galileo's discoveries of 1610 can contact me via http://bit.ly/TOTast

Galileo resolves misty nebulae into stars 1610

In his stunning book A Sidereal Message (actual title is Sidereus Nuncius, normally translated incorrectly as The Starry Messenger)Galileo lists eight telescopic discoveries,anyone of whichwould have earned the Nobel Prize established some 300 years later!

Philosophers had long puzzled over structures in the universe that had the title 'nebulous stars' by the early seventeenth century. The word nebulous does not mean insterstellar matter (that use had to wait for William Herschel), but meant cloud like. Claudius Ptolemy, in the Almagest lists seven of these, which Galileo examined using a 20X power Galilean telescope.

He resolved them in numerous faint stars. In the head of Orion he found 27 stars, and in Praesepe 40 stars

My source of this information http://bit.ly/7WsibK

Media followers who would like to cover Galileo's discoveries of 1610 cancontact me via http://bit.ly/TOTast

Galileo and the Moon Sidereus Nuncius

Here's what Galileo wrote 400 years ago this month to describe the Moon:

He used a telescope that magnified 20 times

"The observational evidence is so compelling that anyone can grasp for himself that the moon's surface is not smooth and polished but rough and uneven. Like the Earth it is covered all over with huge bumps, deep holes, and chasms" He went on to provide sketches of the terminator, showing large craters and high mountains.

Five years later, on 28 February 1615 he received a sharp letter from a high officer of the Vatican warning of the dangerous speculation arising from his claims, namely that the Moon had similarities to Earth.

My source of this information http://bit.ly/7WsibK

Galileo and the Milky Way Sidereus Nuncius

Galileo wrote this, 400 years ago in 1610:

"What we observed in the third place is the essence, namely the matter, of the Milky Way, which can be seen so clearly with the aid of the telescope that what philosophers found for centuries an excruciating problem has been solved with ocular certainty thus freeing us from wordy disputes"
From http://bit.ly/7WsibK

Aristotle maintained that the Milky Way was a celestial fog