He held controversial views on some scientific matters — in particular, in his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory (a term he jokingly coined onBBC Radio, though he later denied doing so in derision) in favour of a "steady-state model", and his promotion ofpanspermia as the origin of life on Earth.[4][5][6]
Hoyle also wrotescience fiction novels, short stories, and radio plays, co-created television serials, and co-authored twelve books with his son,Geoffrey Hoyle.
In late 1940, Hoyle left Cambridge to go toPortsmouth to work for theAdmiralty onradar research, for example devising a method to get the altitude of incoming aeroplanes. He was also put in charge of countermeasures against the radar-guided guns found on theGraf Spee after its scuttling in theRiver Plate.[13] Britain's radar project was a large-scale operation, and was probably the inspiration for the large British project in Hoyle's novelThe Black Cloud. Two colleagues in this war work wereHermann Bondi andThomas Gold, and the three had many discussions on cosmology. The radar work involved several trips to North America, where he took the opportunity to visit astronomers. On one trip to the US, he learned about supernovae atCaltech andMount Palomar and, in Canada, the nuclear physics of plutonium implosion and explosion, noticed some similarity between the two and started thinking aboutsupernova nucleosynthesis. He had an intuition at the time "I will make a name for myself if this works out" (he published his prescient and groundbreaking paper in 1954). He also formed a group at Cambridge exploringstellar nucleosynthesis in ordinary stars and was bothered by the paucity of stellar carbon production in existing models. He noticed that one existing process would be made a billion times more productive if thecarbon-12 nucleus had a resonance at 7.7 MeV, but nuclear physicists at the time omitted such an observed value. On another trip, he visited the nuclear physics group at Caltech, spent a few months of sabbatical there and persuaded them against their scepticism to find theHoyle state in carbon-12, from which a full theory of stellarnucleosynthesis was developed, co-authored by Hoyle and members of the Caltech group.[14]
Blue plaque at Bingley Grammar School commemorating Hoyle
In 1945, after the war ended, Hoyle returned to Cambridge University as a lecturer atSt John's College, Cambridge (where he had been a Fellow since 1939).[15] Hoyle's Cambridge years, 1945–1973, saw him rise to the top of world astrophysics theory, on the basis of a startling originality of ideas covering a wide range of topics. In 1958, Hoyle was appointedPlumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy in Cambridge University. In 1967, he became the founding director of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy (subsequently renamed theInstitute of Astronomy, Cambridge), where his innovative leadership quickly led to this institution becoming one of the premier groups in the world for theoretical astrophysics. In 1971, he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to theInstitution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject "Astronomical Instruments and their Construction".[16] Hoyle wasknighted in the1972 New Year Honours.[17]
Although the occupant of two distinguished offices, by 1972 Hoyle had become unhappy with his life in Cambridge. A dispute over election to a professorial chair led to Hoyle resigning as Plumian professor in 1972. The following year he also resigned the directorship of the institute. Explaining his actions, he later wrote: "I do not see any sense in continuing to skirmish on a battlefield where I can never hope to win. The Cambridge system is effectively designed to prevent one ever establishing a directed policy - key decisions can be upset by ill-informed and politically motivated committees. To be effective in this system one must for ever be watching one's colleagues, almost like a Robespierre spy system. If one does so, then of course little time is left for any real science."[18]
After leaving Cambridge, Hoyle wrote several popular science and science fiction books, as well as presenting lectures around the world, partly to provide a means of support. Hoyle was still a member of the joint policy committee (since 1967), during the planning stage for the 150-inchAnglo-Australian Telescope atSiding Spring Observatory in New South Wales. He became chairman of the Anglo-Australian Telescope board in 1973, and presided at its inauguration in 1974 byCharles, Prince of Wales.
After his resignation from Cambridge in 1972, Hoyle moved to theLake District and occupied his time with treks across the moors, writing books, visiting research centres around the world, and working on science ideas (that have been largely rejected); the topics he wrote about include "Stonehenge,panspermia,Darwinism, paleontology, and viruses from space".[19] On 24 November 1997, while hiking across moorlands in west Yorkshire, near his childhood home in Gilstead, Hoyle fell into a steep ravine calledShipley Glen. He was located about 12 hours later by a party using search dogs.[20][21] He was hospitalised for two months with a broken shoulder bone.[22] In 2001, he suffered a series of strokes and died inBournemouth on 20 August of that year.[19]
Hoyle authored the first two research papers ever published on synthesis of chemical elements heavier than helium by stellar nuclear reactions. The first of these[23] in 1946 showed that cores of stars will evolve to temperatures of billions of degrees, much hotter than temperatures considered for thermonuclear origin of stellar power in main-sequence stars. Hoyle showed that at such high temperatures the element iron can become much more abundant than other heavy elements owing to thermal equilibrium among nuclear particles, explaining the high natural abundance of iron. This idea would later be called theeProcess.[24] Hoyle's second foundational nucleosynthesis publication,[25] published in 1954, showed that the elements between carbon and iron cannot be synthesised by such equilibrium processes. He attributed those elements to specificnuclear fusion reactions between abundant constituents in concentric shells of evolved massive, pre-supernova stars. This startlingly modern picture is the accepted paradigm today for thesupernova nucleosynthesis of these primary elements. In the mid-1950s, Hoyle became the leader of a group of talented experimental and theoretical physicists who met in Cambridge:William Alfred Fowler,Margaret Burbidge, andGeoffrey Burbidge. This group systematised basic ideas of how all the chemical elements in our universe were created, with this now being a field callednucleosynthesis. Famously, in 1957, this group produced theB2FH paper (known for the initials of the four authors) in which the field of nucleosynthesis was organised into complementary nuclear processes. They added much new material on the synthesis of heavy elements by neutron-capture reactions, the so-calleds process and ther process. So influential did the B2FH paper become that for the remainder of the twentieth century it became the default citation of almost all researchers wishing to cite an accepted origin for nucleosynthesis theory, and as a result, the path-breaking Hoyle 1954 paper fell into obscurity. Historical research in the 21st century[26][27] has brought Hoyle's 1954 paper back to scientific prominence. Those historical arguments were first presented to a gathering of nucleosynthesis experts attending a 2007 conference at Caltech organised after the deaths of both Fowler and Hoyle to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of B2FH. Ironically the B2FH paper did not review Hoyle's 1954 supernova-shells attribution of the origin of elements between silicon and iron despite Hoyle's co-authorship of B2FH. Based on his many personal discussions with Hoyle[28]Donald D. Clayton has attributed this seemingly inexplicable oversight in B2FH to the lack of proofreading by Hoyle of the draft composed at Caltech in 1956 by G. R. Burbidge and E. M. Burbidge.[29]
The second of Hoyle's nucleosynthesis papers also introduced an interesting use of theanthropic principle, which was not then known by that name. In trying to work out the steps ofstellar nucleosynthesis, Hoyle calculated that one particular nuclear reaction, thetriple-alpha process, which generatescarbon from helium, would require the carbon nucleus to have a very specific resonance energy and spin for it to work. The large amount of carbon in the universe, which makes it possible forcarbon-based life-forms of any kind to exist, demonstrated to Hoyle that this nuclear reaction must work. Based on this notion, Hoyle therefore predicted the values of the energy, the nuclear spin and the parity of the compound state in the carbon nucleus formed by three alpha particles (helium nuclei), which was later borne out by experiment.[30]
This energy level, while needed to produce carbon in large quantities, was statistically very unlikely to fall where it does in the scheme of carbon energy levels. Hoyle later wrote:
Would you not say to yourself, "Some super-calculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom, otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly minuscule. A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question."
His co-workerWilliam Alfred Fowler eventually won theNobel Prize for Physics in 1983 (withSubrahmanyan Chandrasekhar), but Hoyle's original contribution was overlooked by the electors, and many were surprised that such a notable astronomer missed out.[32] Fowler himself in an autobiographical sketch affirmed Hoyle's pioneering efforts:
The concept of nucleosynthesis in stars was first established by Hoyle in 1946. This provided a way to explain the existence of elements heavier thanhelium in the universe, basically by showing that critical elements such as carbon could be generated in stars and then incorporated in other stars and planets when that star "dies". The new stars formed now start off with these heavier elements and even heavier elements are formed from them. Hoyle theorized that other rarer elements could be explained bysupernovas, the giant explosions which occasionally occur throughout the universe, whose temperatures and pressures would be required to create such elements.
While having no argument with theLemaître theory (later confirmed byEdwin Hubble's observations) that the universe was expanding, Hoyle disagreed on its interpretation. He found the idea that the universe had a beginning to bepseudoscience, resembling arguments for a creator, "for it's an irrational process, and can't be described in scientific terms" (seeKalam cosmological argument).[34] Instead, Hoyle, along withThomas Gold andHermann Bondi (with whom he had worked onradar in theSecond World War), in 1948 began to argue for the universe as being in a "steady state" and formulated theirSteady State theory. The theory tried to explain how the universe could be eternal and essentially unchanging while still having the galaxies we observe moving away from each other. The theory hinged on the creation of matter between galaxies over time, so that even though galaxies get further apart, new ones that develop between them fill the space they leave. The resulting universe is in a "steady state" in the same manner that a flowing river is—the individual water molecules are moving away but the overall river remains the same.
The theory was one alternative to theBig Bang which, like the Big Bang, agreed with key observations of the day, namely Hubble'sred shift observations, and Hoyle was a strong critic of the Big Bang. He coined the term "Big Bang" onBBC radio'sThird Programme broadcast on 28 March 1949.[35] It was said byGeorge Gamow and his opponents that Hoyle intended to be pejorative, and the script from which he read aloud was interpreted by his opponents to be "vain, one-sided, insulting, not worthy of the BBC".[36] Hoyle explicitly denied that he was being insulting and said it was just a striking image meant to emphasise the difference between the two theories for the radio audience.[37] In another BBC interview, he said, "The reason why scientists like the "Big Bang" is because they are overshadowed by the Book of Genesis. It is deep within the psyche of most scientists to believe in the first page of Genesis".[38]
Hoyle, unlike Gold and Bondi, offered an explanation for the appearance of new matter by postulating the existence of what he dubbed the "creation field", or just the "C-field", which had negative pressure in order to be consistent with theconservation of energy and drive the expansion of the universe. This C-field is the same as the later "de Sitter solution" forcosmic inflation, but the C-field model acts much slower than the de Sitter inflation model.[40] They jointly argued that continuous creation was no more inexplicable than the appearance of the entire universe from nothing, although it had to be done on a regular basis. In the end, mounting observational evidence convinced most cosmologists that the steady-state model was incorrect and that the Big Bang theory agreed better with observations, although Hoyle continued to support and develop his theory. In 1993, in an attempt to explain some of the evidence against the steady-state theory, he presented a modified version called "quasi-steady state cosmology" (QSS), but the theory is not widely accepted.
The evidence that resulted in the Big Bang's victory over the steady-state model included discovery ofcosmic microwave background radiation in the 1960s, and the distribution of "young galaxies" andquasars throughout theUniverse in the 1980s indicate a more consistent age estimate of the universe. Hoyle died in 2001 having never accepted the validity of the Big Bang theory.[41]
How, in the big-bang cosmology, is the microwave background explained? Despite what supporters of big-bang cosmology claim, it is not explained. The supposed explanation is nothing but an entry in the gardener's catalogue of hypothesis that constitutes the theory. Had observation given 27 Kelvins instead of 2.7 Kelvins for the temperature, then 27 kelvins would have been entered in the catalogue. Or 0.27 Kelvins. Or anything at all.
Together withNarlikar, Hoyle developed a particle theory in the 1960s, theHoyle–Narlikar theory of gravity. It made predictions that were roughly the same as Einstein'sgeneral relativity, but it incorporatedMach's Principle, which Einstein had tried but failed to incorporate in his theory. The Hoyle-Narlikar theory fails several tests, including consistency with the microwave background. It was motivated by their belief in the steady-state model of the universe.
In his later years, Hoyle became a staunch critic of theories ofabiogenesis to explain theorigin of life on Earth. WithChandra Wickramasinghe, Hoyle promoted thehypothesis that the first life on Earth began in space, spreading through the universe viapanspermia, and thatevolution on Earth is influenced by a steady influx ofviruses arriving viacomets. His belief that comets had a significant percentage oforganic compounds was well ahead of his time, as the dominant views in the 1970s and 1980s were that comets largely consisted of water-ice, and the presence of organic compounds was then highly controversial. Wickramasinghe wrote in 2003: "In the highly polarized polemic betweenDarwinism andcreationism, our position is unique. Although we do not align ourselves with either side, both sides treat us as opponents. Thus we are outsiders with an unusual perspective—and our suggestion for a way out of the crisis has not yet been considered."[43]
Hoyle and Wickramasinghe advanced several instances where they say outbreaks of illnesses on Earth are of extraterrestrial origins, including the1918 flu pandemic, and certain outbreaks ofpolio andmad cow disease. For the 1918 flu pandemic, they hypothesized that cometary dust brought the virus to Earth simultaneously at multiple locations—a view almost universally dismissed by experts on this pandemic. In 1982, Hoyle presentedEvolution from Space for the Royal Institution's Omni Lecture. After considering what he thought of as a very remote possibility of Earth-based abiogenesis he concluded:
If one proceeds directly and straightforwardly in this matter, without being deflected by a fear of incurring the wrath of scientific opinion, one arrives at the conclusion that biomaterials with their amazing measure of order must be the outcome ofintelligent design. No other possibility I have been able to think of...
Published in his 1982/1984 booksEvolution from Space (co-authored with Chandra Wickramasinghe), Hoyle calculated that the chance of obtaining the required set ofenzymes for even the simplest living cell withoutpanspermia was one in 1040,000. Since the number ofatoms in the known universe is infinitesimally tiny by comparison (1080), he argued that Earth as life's place of origin could be ruled out. He claimed:
The notion that not only thebiopolymer but the operating program of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.
Though Hoyle declared himself an atheist,[45] this apparent suggestion of a guiding hand led him to the conclusion that "a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and ... there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature."[46] He would go on to compare the random emergence of even the simplest cell without panspermia to the likelihood that "a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble aBoeing 747 from the materials therein" and to compare the chance of obtaining even a single functioningprotein by chance combination ofamino acids to a solar system full of blind men solvingRubik's Cubes simultaneously.[47] This is known as "thejunkyard tornado",[48] or "Hoyle's Fallacy". Those who advocate theintelligent design (ID) philosophy sometimes cite Hoyle's work in this area to support the claim that the universe wasfine tuned to allow intelligent life to be possible.
While Hoyle was well-regarded for his works on nucleosynthesis and science popularisation, he held positions on a wide range of scientific issues that were in direct opposition to the prevailing theories of the scientific community.[4]Paul Davies describes how he "loved his maverick personality and contempt for orthodoxy", quoting Hoyle as saying "I don't care what they think" about his theories on discrepant redshift, and "it is better to be interesting and wrong than boring and right".[49]
Hoyle often expressed anger against the labyrinthine and petty politics at Cambridge and frequently feuded with members and institutions of all levels of the British astronomy community, leading to his resignation from Cambridge in September 1971 over the way he thoughtDonald Lynden-Bell was chosen to replace retiring professorRoderick Oliver Redman behind his back.[50] According to biographerSimon Mitton, Hoyle was crestfallen because he felt that his colleagues at Cambridge were unsupportive.[4]
In addition to his views onsteady state theory and panspermia, Hoyle also supported the following controversial hypotheses and speculations:
The correlation offlu epidemics with thesunspot cycle, with epidemics occurring at the minimum of the cycle. The idea was that flu contagion was scattered in the interstellar medium and reached Earth only when thesolar wind had minimum power.[51][52][53][54]
The theory ofabiogenic petroleum, held by Hoyle and byThomas Gold, where natural hydrocarbons (oil and natural gas) are explained as the result of deep carbon deposits, instead of fossilised organic material. This theory is dismissed by the mainstream petroleum geochemistry community.[56]
In his 1977 bookOn Stonehenge, Hoyle supported Gerald Hawkins's proposal that the fifty-sixAubrey holes atStonehenge were used as a system forNeolithic Britonsto predict eclipses, using them in the daily positioning of marker stones. Using the Aubrey holes for predicting lunar eclipses was originally proposed by Gerald Hawkins in his book of the subjectStonehenge Decoded (1965).
Hoyle was also at the centre of two unrelated controversies involving the politics for selecting recipients of theNobel Prize for Physics. The first arose when the 1974 prize went in part toAntony Hewish for his leading role in the discovery of pulsars. Hoyle made an off-the-cuff remark to a reporter in Montreal that "Yes,Jocelyn Bell was the actual discoverer, not Hewish, who was her supervisor, so she should have been included." This remark received widespread international coverage. Worried about being misunderstood, Hoyle carefully[57] composed a letter of explanation toThe Times.[32]
The 1983 prize went in part toWilliam Alfred Fowler "for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe" despite Hoyle having been the inventor of the theory ofnucleosynthesis in the stars with two research papers[58] published shortly after WWII. So some suspicion arose that Hoyle was denied the third share of this prize because of his earlier public disagreement with the 1974 award.[59] British scientistHarry Kroto later said that the Nobel Prize is not just an award for a piece of work, but a recognition of a scientist's overall reputation and Hoyle's championing many disreputable and disproven ideas may have invalidated him.[32][60] In his obituary,Nature editor and fellow BritonJohn Maddox called it "shameful" that Fowler had been rewarded with a Nobel prize and Hoyle had not.[60]
Because of his many unorthodox views, Hoyle was described as "the scientist whose rudeness cost him a Nobel prize";[61]Donald D. Clayton wrote that "He made himself look like a sorehead who only cared about the steady state universe and life from outer space. … He made himself look foolish."[62]
Hoyle appeared in a series of radio talks on astronomy for theBBC in the 1950s;[63] these were collected in the bookThe Nature of the Universe,[64] and he went on to write a number of other popular science books.
In the playSur la route de Montalcino, the character of Fred Hoyle confrontsGeorges Lemaître on a fictional journey to the Vatican in 1957.[65]
Hoyle appeared in the 1973 short filmTake the World From Another Point of View.[66]
In the 2004 television movieHawking, Fred Hoyle is played byPeter Firth. In the movie, Stephen Hawking (played byBenedict Cumberbatch) publicly confronts Hoyle at aRoyal Society lecture in summer 1964, about a mistake he found in his latest publication.
The Fred Hoyle Collection atSt John's College Library contains "a pair of walking boots, five boxes of photographs, two ice axes, some dental X-rays, a telescope, ten large film reels and an unpublished opera" in addition to 150 document boxes of papers.[73]
Astronomy, A history of man's investigation of the universe, Crescent Books, Inc., London 1962,LCCN62-14108
Of Men and Galaxies, the University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1964,ASINB0087VKR70
Galaxies, Nuclei, and Quasars, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, 1965,LCCN65-20996
Encounter with the Future, Trident Press, New York, 1965,LCCN65-26309
Nicolaus Copernicus, Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., London, p. 78, 1973
Astronomy and Cosmology: A Modern Course, 1975,ISBN0716703513
Energy or Extinction? The case for nuclear energy, 1977, Heinemann Educational Books Limited,ISBN0435544306. In this provocative book Hoyle establishes the dependence of Western civilisation on energy consumption and predicts that nuclear fission as a source of energy is essential for its survival.
Ten Faces of the Universe, 1977, W.H. Freeman and Company (San Francisco),ISBN071670384X,0716703831
Hoyle also wrotescience fiction. In his first novel,The Black Cloud, most intelligent life in the universe takes the form of interstellar gas clouds; they are surprised to learn that intelligent life can also form onplanets. He wrote a television series,A for Andromeda, which was also published as a novel. His playRockets in Ursa Major had a professional production at theMermaid Theatre in 1962.
The Westminster Disaster, 1978 (co-authored with Geoffrey Hoyle and Edited by Barbara Hoyle)
The Frozen Planet of Azuron, 1982 (Ladybird Books, co-authored with Geoffrey Hoyle)
The Energy Pirate, 1982 (Ladybird Books, co-authored with Geoffrey Hoyle)
The Planet of Death, 1982 (Ladybird Books, co-authored with Geoffrey Hoyle)
The Giants of Universal Park, 1982 (Ladybird Books, co-authored with Geoffrey Hoyle)
Comet Halley, 1985
Most of these are independent of each other.Andromeda Breakthrough is a sequel toA for Andromeda andInto Deepest Space is a sequel toRockets in Ursa Major. The four Ladybird Books are intended for children.
Some stories of the collectionElement 79 are fantasy, in particular "Welcome to Slippage City" and "The Judgement of Aphrodite". Both introduce mythological characters.
^Hoyle, F. (1954). "On Nuclear Reactions Occurring in Very Hot STARS. I. the Synthesis of Elements from Carbon to Nickel".The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.1:121–146.Bibcode:1954ApJS....1..121H.doi:10.1086/190005.ISSN0067-0049.
^Clayton, Donald D. "Hoyle's Equation",Science 318, 1876 (2007)
^Clayton, Donald D. "Fred Hoyle, primary nucleosynthesis and radioactivity",New Astronomy Reviews 52, 360–363 (2008)
^"Fred Hoyle, primary nucleosynthesis and radioactivity"New Astronomy Reviews 52, 360–363 (2008), p. 363, footnote 1
^Hoyle, Fred,Evolution from Space, Omni Lecture, Royal Institution, London, 12 January 1982;Evolution from Space (1982) pp. 27–28ISBN0894900838;Evolution from Space: A Theory of Cosmic Creationism (1984)ISBN0671492632
^Gregory, Jane (2005)."Fighting for space".Fred Hoyle's Universe. Oxford University Press. p. 143.ISBN978-0191578465.According to Hoyle: "I am an atheist, but as far as blowing up the world in a nuclear war goes, I tell them not to worry."
^Hoyle, Fred (November 1981). "The Universe: Past and Present Reflections",Engineering and Science, Volume 45:2, pp. 8–12
^Hoyle, Fred (1984).The Intelligent Universe. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.ISBN978-0030700835.
^"The synthesis of the elements from hydrogen" MNRAS 106, 343 (1946); "The synthesis of the elements from carbon to nickel"Astrophys. J. Suppl. 1, 121–146 (1954)
^Mitton, Simon,Fred Hoyle a life in science, pp. 301–305, Cambridge University Press, 2011
Alan P. Lightman and Roberta Brawer,Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists,Harvard University Press, 1990. A collection of interviews, mostly with the generation (or two) of cosmologists after Hoyle, but also including an interview with Hoyle himself. Several interviewees testify to Hoyle's influence in popularising astronomy and cosmology.
Dennis Overbye,Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe,HarperCollins, 1991.ISBN0330295853 2nd ed. (with new afterword), Back Bay, 1999. Gives a biographical account of modern cosmology in a novel-like fashion. Complementary toOrigins.
Simon Mitton,Fred Hoyle: A Life in Science, Cambridge University Press, 2011.ISBN978-0521189477
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