St John's College News

  1. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Hoyle the Writer Into Deepest Space In 1962 the Mermaid Theatre in London staged a production of Hoyle's play for children, Rockets in Ursa Major. It was reworked by Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle and published as a novel by Heinemann in 1969. In 1974 it was followed by a somewhat darker sequel, Into Deepest Space. This draft of the opening of Into Deepest Space shows Fred Hoyle's manuscript…read more
  2. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Hoyle the Writer Fred Hoyle wrote nineteen works of science fiction, many in collaboration with his son, Geoffrey, including one volume of short stories, and four children’s ‘Ladybird’ books. Hoyle’s first science fiction novel The Black Cloud, was published in 1957. In the story the Earth is visited by the eponymous being, a sentient cloud of organic molecules from interstellar space. In an…read more
  3. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Hoyle on the Radio: Creating the 'Big Bang' Hoyle had a talent for making complex scientific concepts comprehensible to the lay man, and he gave a number of ‘popular’ talks about astronomy on the radio. The first two talks, on the subject of sunspots, were broadcast on the BBC in 1948. The following year he was invited to give a talk on the theory of continuous creation. The theory of a…read more
  4. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Institute of Theoretical Astronomy Final Resignation Hoyle's resignation letter, sent to the Vice-Chancellor of the University and Master of Trinity Hall, Professor William Alexander Deer, and copied to seven others concerned with the Institute: February 14 1972 The Vice-Chancellor Trinity Hall Cambridge, ENGLAND Dear Vice Chancellor: Following the recent appointment to the Chair of…read more
  5. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Institute of Theoretical Astronomy Final Resignation In August 1972 funding for the Institute from the Nuffield Foundation and the SRC was due to run out. In 1971 the University proposed merging IoTA with the observatories to form a new Institute of Astronomy. Hoyle felt that he was the natural choice for director of the new Institute. But confusion arose, and Hoyle believed that the…read more
  6. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Institute of Theoretical AstronomyThe New BuildingHoyle in and around the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy building, c. 1968. [Photo by Sam Shaw, copyright Sam Shaw, Inc., licensed  by Shaw Family Archives, Ltd.] This building is now an integral part of the Institute of Astronomy, and has been extended both outwards and upwards. A statue of Hoyle was unveiled outside it in 1992, and the…read more
  7. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Institute of Theoretical Astronomy Opening Speech The Institute of Theoretical Astronomy was officially opened on 7 November 1967. This is the speech that Hoyle made on that occasion. I would like to introduce the question of the aims and purpose of this Institute with a wider reference to Astronomy as a whole. The physical sciences began with Astronomy and much of our present day civilisation…read more
  8. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Institute of Theoretical Astronomy Opening Speech The Institute of Theoretical Astronomy was officially opened on 7 November 1967. This is the opening of the speech that Hoyle made on that occasion. Threatened Resignation | Sketch of the IoTA building | Opening Speech | The New Building | Final Resignation Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 Transcription of the speech Hoyle's Youth | Hoyle in …read more
  9. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Institute of Theoretical Astronomy Sketch Plan of the IoTA Building Hoyle’s sketched plan for the design of the IoTA building, c. 1965. Hoyle took great care over many of the details of the building, including specifying that it should have a wide, carpeted corridor in which staff could pace up and down to think without disturbing others. Construction began in August 1966, and IoTA was…read more
  10. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Institute of Theoretical Astronomy Threatened Resignation Hoyle asks that his resignation (threatened and suspended in October 1964) be “considered operative” from 1 January 1966 because he has learnt that the University has accepted regulations for the governance of IoTA with which he strongly disagrees. Draft of a letter sent by Hoyle to the Vice-Chancellor of the University on 24 January…read more
  11. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Institute of Theoretical Astronomy In the early 1960s Hoyle had the idea of creating a national centre for theoretical astronomy that would compete with the great American astronomical schools. He spent several years in protracted negotiations with the University of Cambridge, the Science Research Council, and with other funding bodies attempting to bring this idea to fruition, even…read more
  12. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Hoyle vs Ryle 'An assessment of the evidence against the steady-state theory' Hoyle never abandoned the steady state theory, and continued to talk and write about it into the 1990s. This article was delivered by Hoyle as a paper at a conference on 'Astronomy, Cosmology, and Fundamental Physics' held in Bologna in May 1988. It was published in a book based on the conference, Modern Cosmology…read more
  13. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Hoyle vs Ryle 'A Professor yclept Martin Ryle' This humorous three-stanza poem was found in the Hoyle Collection amongst letters sent to Fred and Barbara Hoyle in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It refers to the disagreements between Hoyle and the Cambridge radio astronomer Martin Ryle in the 1960s. 'A Professor Yclept Martin Ryle' | 'An Assessment of the Evidence Against the Steady State…read more
  14. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Hoyle vs Ryle For the steady state theory to be true, the universe must have been, on a large scale, the same for all of its existence. There would be no evolution of different types of stars or galaxies, types which existed only for part of the life of the universe. In the late 1950s, new astronomical objects started to be discovered. They emitted large quantities of radio waves,…read more
  15. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Stellar Nucleosynthesis B-squared-F-H Hoyle went on to work in a famous collaboration with Willy Fowler and Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge to find a solution to the origin of the chemical elements. Their mammoth paper, ‘Synthesis of the elements in stars’ was published in Reviews of Modern Physics, (pp. 547-650) in 1957. With over 1300 citations it is Hoyle’s most frequently…read more
  16. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Stellar Nucleosynthesis The r-Process By 1949 Hoyle was considering the synthesis of carbon-12. In 1951 Ed Salpeter of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) hit upon a way of making carbon-12 from helium and beryllium. But it did not produce enough carbon to account for the abundance of this element in the universe. Hoyle realised that, for the reaction to happen efficiently,…read more
  17. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Stellar Nucleosynthesis Hoyle’s Notebook In a surviving notebook from 1946, Hoyle wrote out the first version of his ideas on element synthesis. From these notes he produced a seminal paper taking the element building process up to iron ('The synthesis of the elements from hydrogen', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 106 (1946), pp. 343-383). In this extract he worries over…read more
  18. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Stellar Nucleosynthesis Over the course of a decade or more Hoyle made a massive contribution to the understanding of how chemical elements are made inside stars. This work culminated in a mammoth paper authored with three other scientists which unravelled the origin of the chemical elements. Hoyle's Notebook | The r-Process | B-squared-F-H Hoyle's Youth | Hoyle in Cambridge | Steady-State…read more
  19. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Steady-State Universe A New Model for the Expanding Universe In 1948 Hoyle, Bondi and Gold published their bold ideas in two papers in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS): Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold, ‘The steady-state theory of the expanding universe’, MNRAS 108 (1948), pp. 252-270. Fred Hoyle, ‘A new model for the expanding universe’, MNRAS 108 (1948), pp. 372-382.…read more
  20. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Steady-State Universe Hoyle, Bondi and Gold In 1946 Fred Hoyle, Hermann Bondi, and Thomas Gold went together to see the classic horror film Dead of Night, which tells the story of a repeating nightmare. On their return home, Gold suggested producing a cyclical film that one could begin viewing at any point. He then speculated that perhaps the universe might be like this, with no beginning…read more
  21. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Steady-State Universe In the early twentieth century, the astronomer Edmund Hubble discovered that the universe appears to be expanding. In the 1920s the Belgian scientist Georges Lemaître developed the idea that the universe has, since its creation, been continually expanding from a single infinitesimal point, which he called the “primeval atom”. This theory was later named the ‘big bang…read more
  22. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Hoyle in Cambridge Fred and Geoff Hoyle Fred Hoyle with his young son Geoffrey in 1944. During the Second World War Hoyle worked on radar for the Admiralty, and this photograph was taken during some scarce time enjoyed with his new family. 'Student's Distinction' | Fred & Geoff Hoyle Hoyle's Youth | Hoyle in Cambridge | Steady-State Universe | Stellar Nucleosynthesis | Hoyle vs Ryle…read more
  23. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Hoyle in Cambridge 'Student’s Distinction' This brief article from a local Yorkshire newspaper reports Hoyle's success in the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos in 1936. The Mayhew Prize is awarded to the final-year mathematics student who gains top marks in the Applied Mathematics course. In 1936 Hoyle shared this prize with George Stanley Rushbrooke of St John's College, who went on to become…read more
  24. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Hoyle in Cambridge Hoyle came up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in October 1933. He intended to read for a Natural Sciences degree, focussing on chemistry or physics, but his tutor, the mathematician P.W. Wood, advised that he might consider starting by taking the first year of the Mathematical Tripos in order to improve his maths. Hoyle took this advice, and eventually took his whole…read more
  25. Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

    13/09/2011
    Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition
    Hoyle's Youth Hoyle’s Telescope This telescope was given to Hoyle as a present from his family when he was a boy. It is made from brass, and is a refracting telescope. Refracting telescopes use a combination of glass lenses to focus the light from distant objects. The Hoyle Family | Chemical Balance | Scholarship Examination Papers | A Letter to his Father | Hoyle's Telescope Further views…read more