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Thursday, 28 April 2011
HAy Festival 27 May 2011
I'm speaking at this festival, 27 May 2011, at 1945 (7.45 pm) on the topic Five Books that changed our View of the Universe. Ptolemy Almagest, De Revolutionibus Copernicus, Galileo Dialogo and Starry Message, Newton Principia.
Monday, 6 December 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, 21 November 2010
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.
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.
Monday, 4 October 2010
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.
Sunday, 3 October 2010
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.
Friday, 1 October 2010
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
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
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