This is CBSi and the world. I'm John Bachelor with Professor Paul Halpern. His new book is

Flashes of Creation, George Gamoff, Fred Hoyle, and the Great Big Bang Debate. I met

Fred Hoyle from a science fiction book he wrote in the 1950s. I met

George Gamoff from a book that he wrote about Cosmology, one two three infinity in the 1950s. I never understood Gamoff. I loved Hoyle. So those are my prejudices,

but to have them both together is a joy thanks to Paul's work. So we pick up our story of the son of the pianist at the movies,

Fred Hoyle. He arrives at Cambridge through a series of you can't make this up debates mentor he has mentor professors and he's

guided to Cambridge he arrives as at the time of a rich turning of physics at Cambridge.

Maxborn, Rudolph Pirals, they're building an accelerator.

The Professor Desitter dies, but others come, Professor Price, Professor Deirac, and he wins

his PhD eventually in 1939.

What did Fred Hoyle think he was while it came bridge with all these distinguished

physicist p paul

he definitely wanted to be a particle physicist or a nuclear physicist

uh... originally in high school he wanted to be a chemist and as a child he

loved astronomy but he went from astronomy to chemistry and finally at Cambridge

he imagined himself working in particle labs and interpreting the information.

So interpreting the data, very, very similar to what Gamov was doing sometime earlier. So Gamov would develop models of how nuclear

particles interacted. Hoyle had a great respect for Gamov's work and

wanted to kind of continue along those lines.

And then of course in 1939, World War II came along and Hoyle had to, he got his PhD, but then he had to wait until he could get a

professorship at Cambridge which didn't come until 1945. He plunges into

super secret work which is radar. He eventually joins in 42 section 8XR C 8. I love

...