EPISODE · May 15, 2020 · 55 MIN
65: Burbidge Burbidge Fowler & Hoyle
from syzygy · host Chris Stewart
Special Event! Syzygy Live at the Festival of Ideas — Friday 12 June, 8-9pm UK time. All the details at the website.Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypodThings we talked about in this episode:The BBFH paperNucleosynthesisP-P chain reactionThe Hot CNO cycleMargaret Burbidge obituary, 5 April 2020Geoffrey Burbidge obituary, 6 Feb 2010William FowlerThe Nobel Prize 1983Frank HoyleHoyle and the Big BangPanspermia
What this episode covers
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.
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65: Burbidge Burbidge Fowler & Hoyle
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