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SUMMARY: Fred Hoyle: discovery and conflict in astrophyiscs and cosmology 
 - Dr Simon Mitton\, St Edmunds College\, Cambridge
DTSTART:20061011T151500Z
DTEND:20061011T161500Z
UID:TALK5560@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Leona Hope-Coles
DESCRIPTION:Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) was an outstanding theoretical astronom
 er who was best known for his opposition to Big Bang cosmology. In 1936 he
  became a research student in nuclear physics at the Cavendish \nLaborator
 y\, supervised first by Rudolph Peierls and then Paul Dirac\, with whom he
  worked on quantum electrodynamics. His interests changed to astronomy in 
 1939\, but he was soon whisked away from the Cavendish \nto work on naval 
 radar throughout WWII. Returning to Cambridge in 1945\, he worked in isola
 tion on the origin of the chemical elements in stars. \nBy 1946 he had dis
 covered the nuclear reactions in the interiors of giant stars leading to t
 he synthesis of elements from carbon to iron. Spectacularly\, in 1953\, he
  used astrophysics to predict an enhanced \nenergy state in the nucleus of
  carbon-12. By 1957 he\, together with colleagues at Caltech\, could accou
 nt for the origin in the cosmos of some 250 isotopes\, a towering achievem
 ent. For two decades his \ntheoretical work in cosmology caused sharp disa
 greements with his colleagues in the radio astronomy group in the Cavendis
 h. His clashes \nwith Martin Ryle (Nobel Prize in Physics 1974) were front
  page sensations in the tabloid press. This non-technical colloquium will 
 review Hoyle's contributions to physics and cosmology.\n
LOCATION:Pippard Lecture Theatre\, Cavendish Laboratory
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