Controversial Cosmologist Fred Hoyle Dies At 86

MikeCamel writes: "The BBC announced today that Fred Hoyle, astronomer, science populariser and science fiction writer, died yesterday, aged 86. He is best known for having coined the phrase 'Big Bang,' though he was actually an opponent of the idea, and advocated the 'steady state' theory. He also believed that life didn't start on Earth, but that we were 'seeded' from outer space."

farrellj adds: "Hoyle was famous for a number of things, inventing the term 'Big Bang,' figuring out how stars create the heavier elements, and his most controversial, the idea that the seeds of life on earth came from space. He was also a noted Science Fiction writer, with many books, sometimes co-authored with his son, Geoffrey. We have lost one of the more original thinkers in the field of Astrophysics. You can read more at the NY Times site. (free reg. required, yadda yadda)"

Comments

Science needs people like Fred

[Rupert]

We need good scientists who refuse to accept the commonly accepted explanations. The scientific method is good at testing theories, but we need people who can create alternative theories so they can be tested.

Of course, when you're talking about universe formation, the repeatability part is kind of awkward.

Re:Neatly intresting

[Phanatic1a]

It wouldn't even be interesting if it did happen. Ideas and theories stand and fall on their own merits, not on the opinions of their originators. If Einstein in his later years recanted, and took to hanging out in airports wearing saffron robes and handing out daffodils, it wouldn't make relativity any less accurate.