55 min
65: Burbidge Burbidge Fowler & Hoyle syzygy
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- Astronomy
In 1957, a paper was published in Reviews of Modern Physics that changed astrophysics at its core. Well, we say "paper" — it was more of a tome: a hundred pages of research and review that laid out in detail how the elements of the periodic table are made in nuclear processes in stars and supernovae. The authors — Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge, William Fowler and Fred Hoyle — are all legendary figures in astrophysics. The last of the authors, Margaret Burbidge, died on 5 April 2020 at the age of 100. We look back on the lives and contributions to astronomy of this great quartet of scientists, focussing on their pivotal B-squared-F-H paper.
In 1957, a paper was published in Reviews of Modern Physics that changed astrophysics at its core. Well, we say "paper" — it was more of a tome: a hundred pages of research and review that laid out in detail how the elements of the periodic table are made in nuclear processes in stars and supernovae. The authors — Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge, William Fowler and Fred Hoyle — are all legendary figures in astrophysics. The last of the authors, Margaret Burbidge, died on 5 April 2020 at the age of 100. We look back on the lives and contributions to astronomy of this great quartet of scientists, focussing on their pivotal B-squared-F-H paper.
55 min