Geoffrey Burbidge - Böcker

A thought-provoking insight into the evolution of cosmology for undergraduate students and general readers, this book shows that the mystery of the origin of the universe is far from being solved. Cosmology has advanced over time through observational evidence as well as a lot of speculation. In this historical approach, the authors argue that the speculative element has become a dominant part of modern cosmology. They show how assumptions have been made and portrayed as confirmed facts. This unique book gives not only a critical assessment of the big bang theory, but presents a host of anomalous observations, and puts forward an alternative, controversial theory on the origin of the universe. A non-mathematical account, it contains analogies from everyday life so that readers can understand the concepts easily and follow the arguments presented.

This volume contains papers presented at an international conference to celebrate Fred Hoyle's contributions to astronomy, astrophysics and astrobiology and - more generally - to humanity and culture. The contributed articles highlight the important aspects of his scientific life and show how much of an example and inspiration he has been for over three generations in the 20th century. There are few people of whom it could be said they changed the way we perceive the world. Galileo Galilei, Nicholas Copernicus and Isaac Newton were amongst these. The inclusion of Fred Hoyle in this elite group may be contentious at the moment for the reason that in challenging the most cherished of Holy Grails in science he unwittingly offended many. But once the dust has settled over the many disputes that were raised and in the fullness of time there can be little doubt that Fred Hoyle will be ranked alongside these figures of history. Hoyle perceived science with an indomitable passion and an obsessive desire to find the truth wherever it lay.His singleness of purpose in this great mission and his deep suspicion of orthodoxy, his powerful intellect and imagination set him apart from most of his contemporaries in the last century. This volume includes papers presented at a commemorative conference held in Cardiff in June 2002. The material divides naturally into several sections: "Personal Reminiscences", "Stellar Structure" and "Evolution", "Cosmology", "Interstellar Matter", "Comets" and finally "Panspermia". Each article pays its own tribute to Fred Hoyle for his inspiration and guidance that led to major breakthroughs in astrophysics and space science throughout the 20th century.

The Symposium was held at the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in Beijing, China in the period August 25-30, 1986. The decision to concentrate on the observational aspects of modern cosmology was taken in part because this conference has come in a period when there have been several international meetings on one aspect of modern cosmology, namely the early universe and its possible relationship to particle physics. While that approach is extremely exciting, it has the disadvantage that its connection with much of observational cosmology is very indirect. Thus there has been little opportunity to discuss critically the wealth of new data that are now becoming available which bear on the structure and evolution of the Universe but not always on its early history. This Symposium was planned to cover all aspects of observational cosmology, with only comparatively minor excursions into theory. Nearly 200 participants attended from 21 countries. A total of 26 invited papers and 73 contributed papers were given. This meant that everyone worked hard and long from 9 A.M. to about 5:30 P.M. for five of the six days of the conference. In addition to oral contributions, space was made available for poster papers and 56 of these were available for study for the duration of the conference.