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Flashes of Creation: George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, and the Great Big Bang Debate - Hardcover | Diverse Reads

Flashes of Creation: George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, and the Great Big Bang Debate

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A respected physics professor and author breaks down the great debate over the Big Bang and the continuing quest to understand the fate of the universe.
 
Today, the Big Bang is so entrenched in our understanding of the cosmos that to doubt it would seem crazy. But as Paul Halpern shows in Flashes of Creation, just decades ago its mere mention caused sparks to fly. At the center of the debate were Russian American physicist George Gamow and British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. Gamow insisted that a fiery explosion explained how the elements of the universe were created. Attacking the idea as half-baked, Hoyle countered that the universe was engaged in a never-ending process of creation. The battle was fierce. In the end, Gamow turned out to be right — mostly — and Hoyle, despite his many achievements, is remembered for giving the theory the silliest possible name: "The Big Bang." Halpern captures the brilliance of both thinkers and reminds us that even those proved wrong have much to teach us about boldness, imagination, and the universe itself.
 
 

ISBN-13: 9781541673595

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Basic Books

Publication Date: 08-17-2021

Pages: 304

Product Dimensions: 5.80(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.20(d)

Paul Halpern is a professor of physics at Saint Joseph’s University and the author of eighteen popular science books, including The Quantum Labyrinth, Einstein's Dice and Schrodinger's Cat, and Synchronicity. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Introduction The Quest for the Origin of Everything 1

Chapter 1 Children of an Expanding Cosmos 17

Chapter 2 Preparing the Battlefield: Anticipations of a Cosmological Clash 47

Chapter 3 Unlocking the Nucleus 75

Chapter 4 Recurrence in the Dead of Night: The Theory of Continuous Creation 107

Chapter 5 Alpha to Omega: A Fiery Beginning 129

Chapter 6 Building the Elements 149

Chapter 7 Triumph of the Big Bang 173

Chapter 8 The Point of No Return 191

Chapter 9 Life on the Fringes 211

Conclusion The Legacies of Gamow and Hoyle 241

Acknowledgments 255

Further Reading 257

References 261

Index 277