Cover image for Journey with Fred Hoyle.
Journey with Fred Hoyle.
Title:
Journey with Fred Hoyle.
Author:
Wickramasinghe, Chandra.
ISBN:
9789814436137
Personal Author:
Edition:
2nd ed.
Physical Description:
1 online resource (272 pages)
Contents:
Contents -- Foreword -- Foreword to First Edition -- Preface to Second Edition -- Prologue -- Chapter 1 Origins: Prelude to the Journey -- Chapter 2 Cambridge and a First Meeting -- Chapter 3 A Hike in the Lake District -- Chapter 4 Betwixt the Stars -- Chapter 5 The Route to Carbon Dust -- Chapter 6 A Theory Takes Shape -- Chapter 7 The Institute of Astronomy: The Vintage Years -- Chapter 8 Winds of Change -- Chapter 9 The Cardiff Era -- Chapter 10 The Search for Cosmic Life -- Chapter 11 Life from Comets and Pathogens from Space -- Chapter 12 First Signs of Life -- Chapter 13 Bacterial Dust Predictions Verified -- Chapter 14 Life on the Planets -- Chapter 15 Evolution from Space -- Chapter 16 Theories of Trial -- Chapter 17 A Fossil Controversy -- Chapter 18 Comet Halley and its Legacy -- Chapter 19 Alternative Cosmologies -- Chapter 20 The Last Decade -- Epilogue -- Search for the Origin of Life -- Cost of Heterodoxy -- Astronomical Predictions: Comets and Meteorites -- Astronomical Spectroscopy -- Big Bang Cosmology -- Planets -- Evolutionary Predictions -- Explicit Predictions from 1982 -- Viral Sequences in Genomes -- Bibliography to First Edition -- Bibliography to Second Edition -- Index.
Abstract:
This is the story of the author's unique scientific journey with one of the most remarkable men of 20th century science. The journey begins in Sri Lanka, the author's native country, with his childhood acquaintance with Fred Hoyle's writings. The action then moves to Cambridge, where the famous Hoyle-Wickramasinghe collaborations begin. A research programme which was started in 1962 on the carbonaceous nature of interstellar dust leads, over the next two decades, to developments that are continued in both Cambridge and Cardiff. These developments prompt Hoyle and the author to postulate the organic theory of cosmic dust (which is now generally accepted), and then to challenge one of the most cherished paradigms of contemporary science - the theory that life originated on Earth in a warm primordial soup.This new edition examines the many scientific developments that have transpired since the first edition was published. The discovery of bacteria in the upper reaches of the atmosphere, biological signatures in meteorites, spectroscopy of high-z galaxies and more all mesh with many of the ideas that had their origin in the first edition. Pushing into the future, the updated text examines the many experiments and probes currently operating or planned that will shed more light on the theory of planetary panspermia. A Journey with Fred Hoyle is an intriguing book that delineates the progress of a collaboration spanning 40 years, through a sequence of personal reflections, anecdotes and reminiscences.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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