September 11, 2016 Sunday
Bedtime Story
The Alpher Bethe Gamow Paper of 1948
Today I wish to bring to your knowledge a remarkable paper that is very little known to people outside its arena of interest.
Yet I consider it fit that any ape who has higher intelligence should know about it.
This paper was actually a PhD dissertation of Ralph Alpher (co working with navy at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory APL) under the supervision of George Gamow at George Washington University.
This paper was the first serious scientific attempt to answer one of the most fundamental questions:
"Where did all this come from?"
I am talking about the legendary Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper commonly known as the alpha beta gamma paper as the names of the authors very closely resemble the first 3 letters of the Greek alphabet.
It was originally published in the April 1948 issue of the journal "Physical Review", a peer reviewed science journal that was started in 1893 by the Cornell professor Edward Nichols.
The paper was titled:
"The Origin of Chemical Elements".
If you notice, most scientific papers are titled very modestly unlike the headlines of popular media which indulge in crass sensationalism (classic example being "God Particle Discovered").
Before going into the subject matter, let us know the authors first.
The principal author and the defender of this thesis was Ralph Alpher (this was probably the most watched PhD thesis ever; over 300 people came to watch this).
George Gamow was his PhD advisor at the George Washington University.
Gamow thought he knew how elements were formed buy he needed someone who could solve his differential equations).
Gamow's getting Alpher as his doctoral student is considered a sort of coup as Gamow needed a mathematician to support his origin of elements theorizing.
The third man Hans Bethe had nothing to do with this paper (though in coming years he would work out what was wrong in this paper).
But gentlemen, I would be committing a gross injustice in discussing this paper without naming and storytelling about the pioneers of cosmology.
The men who had the audacity to suggest mathematically using Einstein's famous field equations what was then a scientific heresy.
To say that the universe had a beginning!
What insolence!
They were:
Alexander Friedmann
and
Georges Lemaitre
Remember mon ami, these men, the so called cosmologists do not work with telescopes, either optical or radio.
Their principal tool is mathematics (tensor calculus, differential geometry...), physical equations, chemistry and the analytical cum imaginative power of the brain.
Radio astronomy is another fascinating subject which eventually helped in confirming the predictions made be these theoreticians.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
A glimpse of the landmark paper
Ralph Alpher, George Gamow and Hans Bethe
Bedtime Story
The Alpher Bethe Gamow Paper of 1948
Today I wish to bring to your knowledge a remarkable paper that is very little known to people outside its arena of interest.
Yet I consider it fit that any ape who has higher intelligence should know about it.
This paper was actually a PhD dissertation of Ralph Alpher (co working with navy at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory APL) under the supervision of George Gamow at George Washington University.
This paper was the first serious scientific attempt to answer one of the most fundamental questions:
"Where did all this come from?"
I am talking about the legendary Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper commonly known as the alpha beta gamma paper as the names of the authors very closely resemble the first 3 letters of the Greek alphabet.
It was originally published in the April 1948 issue of the journal "Physical Review", a peer reviewed science journal that was started in 1893 by the Cornell professor Edward Nichols.
The paper was titled:
"The Origin of Chemical Elements".
If you notice, most scientific papers are titled very modestly unlike the headlines of popular media which indulge in crass sensationalism (classic example being "God Particle Discovered").
Before going into the subject matter, let us know the authors first.
The principal author and the defender of this thesis was Ralph Alpher (this was probably the most watched PhD thesis ever; over 300 people came to watch this).
George Gamow was his PhD advisor at the George Washington University.
Gamow thought he knew how elements were formed buy he needed someone who could solve his differential equations).
Gamow's getting Alpher as his doctoral student is considered a sort of coup as Gamow needed a mathematician to support his origin of elements theorizing.
The third man Hans Bethe had nothing to do with this paper (though in coming years he would work out what was wrong in this paper).
But gentlemen, I would be committing a gross injustice in discussing this paper without naming and storytelling about the pioneers of cosmology.
The men who had the audacity to suggest mathematically using Einstein's famous field equations what was then a scientific heresy.
To say that the universe had a beginning!
What insolence!
They were:
Alexander Friedmann
and
Georges Lemaitre
Remember mon ami, these men, the so called cosmologists do not work with telescopes, either optical or radio.
Their principal tool is mathematics (tensor calculus, differential geometry...), physical equations, chemistry and the analytical cum imaginative power of the brain.
Radio astronomy is another fascinating subject which eventually helped in confirming the predictions made be these theoreticians.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
A glimpse of the landmark paper
Ralph Alpher, George Gamow and Hans Bethe
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