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 Home Is Where the Wind Blows: Chapters from a Cosmologist's Life by Fred Hoyle Foreword by Margaret Burbidge University Science Books; ISBN: 093570227X Hardcover (Nov 1994); 443 pp Ships immediately |
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From the Publisher
In Home Is Where the Wind Blows, Sir Fred Hoyle, one of this century's most eminent scientists and author of dozens of successful books, both fiction and nonfiction, offers a revealing and charming account of his life and work. Mathematician, physicist, astronomer, cosmologist - Sir Fred is perhaps best known, in scientific circles, for his brilliant explanation of the origin of the elements from hydrogen nuclei in stars (a process known as nucleosynthesis) and for developing (with Sir Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold) the elegant but controversial steady-state theory of the Universe (which assumes the continuous creation of matter). In 1950, in the last of a series of radio lectures on astronomy that he delivered on the air for the BBC, Sir Fred coined the term "Big Bang" to characterize the competing expanding-Universe theory, which has since become the dominant paradigm. Ironically, the term has become a permanent addition to the language of cosmology. Sir Fred's name has become well known to the general public because of his unusual ability to describe the ideas of science in a simple and accessible way. In addition to his scientific work, he has written more than a dozen works of popular science (many of them widely translated) and more than a dozen works of science fiction (most of them in collaboration with his son, Geoffrey). In all his work, Sir Fred has shown himself to be ready and able to challenge established thinking. In the author's amusing and memorable account of his childhood in Home Is Where the Wind Blows, the reader will see how this came to be true. Possessed since infancy with a strong streak of independence, he was encouraged by his parents, throughout his school years, to trust his own judgment and to think for himself.
From the Critics
From Bryce Christensen - BookList
In an autobiography of singular depth, a renowned theoretical physicist recounts his efforts to wrest from the universe its profoundest secrets. Although he was born to a family of modest means--he was the son of a World War I machine gunner--Hoyle so distinguished himself at Cambridge for his mathematical prowess that he was subsequently awarded a high place within the British scientific establishment. Hoyle pursued research interests that brought him in contact with such giants as Eddington, Dirac, and Hubble in Britain and Fermi, Chandra, and Pauli abroad. But it was Hoyle's willingness to stand apart from the scientific establishment, his intellectual daring, that enabled him to fathom supernovas and to predict the existence of quasars. Perhaps because he achieved his breakthroughs in cosmology, the most expansive of the sciences, the author has maintained a refreshingly broad perspective: his memoirs are rich with literary allusion, political shrewdness, and philosophical reflection. Concluding with metaphysical speculations that will challenge the atheist and the fundamentalist alike, Hoyle invites his readers to reassess the meaning of life in an expanding cosmos.
From Booknews
Published by University Science Books, 20 Edgehill Road, Mill Valley, California, 94941. Mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and cosmologist, Hoyle is best know in scientific circles for his explanation of nucleosynthesis in stars, and developing the steady- state theory of the universe (he coined the term Big Bang, but never endorsed it). Hoyle has become known to the general public through his popular science books and science fiction, written with his son. Includes twenty-four pages of black and white photos. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly
Twentieth-century winds have blown astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle from radar development projects in WW II England to modern cosmology, where his key contributions include naming the Big Bang theory. His memoirs of his early schooling and family life as the son of a Yorkshire wool merchant are as charming as James Herriot's recollections. Hoyle's career, spent mostly at Cambridge University, spans the watershed years of quantum theory in physics and radio astronomy. Ever the reserved English scientist, he raises no more than a bon mot about the exalted company he has kept--Paul Dirac, Sir Arthur Eddington, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, among them--who comprise the first generation to work under the assumptions of relativity. Although this is mainly a memoir, Hoyle offers some model general science writing about his work on the synthesis of heavy elements in star formation. His modesty and quirky attraction to various anthropic theories have kept him in the background for much of his later career, but on these pages, seen against his own firmament, Hoyle blazes bright, as human being and scientist. Photos. $25,000 ad/promo. (June)
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