His early book "Disturbing The Universe" can disturb, move, and enlighten a reader 40 years after its publication.
Posted on 02/28/2020 11:36:51 AM PST by Borges
Freeman J. Dyson, a mathematical prodigy who left his mark on subatomic physics before turning to messier subjects like Earth’s environmental future and the morality of war, died on Friday at a hospital near Princeton, N.J. He was 96.
His daughter Mia Dyson confirmed the death.
As a young graduate student at Cornell in 1949, Dr. Dyson wrote a landmark paper — worthy, some colleagues thought, of a Nobel Prize — that deepened the understanding of how light interacts with matter to produce the palpable world. The theory the paper advanced, called quantum electrodynamics, or QED, ranks among the great achievements of modern science.
But it was as a writer and technological visionary that he gained public renown. He imagined exploring the solar system with spaceships propelled by nuclear explosions and establishing distant colonies nourished by genetically engineered plants.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A great scientist.
RIP.
He trashed man made global warming.
He trashed man made global warming.
RIP.
He was not a fan of the global warming scam. He made the point that more co2 means plants need less water so it actually makes the world a greener place.
He trashed man made global warming.
He trashed man-made global warming.
He trashed man, made global warming.
Punctuation cures ambiguity. :-)
Damn.
Dyson is gone.
Now that IS a loss.
At first, I thought my vacuum cleaner warranty was void
But we won’t really know if he’s dead or not unless we open the coffin.
His early book "Disturbing The Universe" can disturb, move, and enlighten a reader 40 years after its publication.
I’m embarrassed to say that I thought it was the same guy.
And good vacuum cleaners..........oh, wait a sec..........
There was a Star Trek character named after him who, in one episode, planted his brain engrams into a computer program to guide an experimental Federation starship that ended up firing on the Enterprise. Interesting episode and they paid homage to a great scientist.
It was very easy to misread that as 'slimeball'.
“There was a Star Trek character named after him who, in one episode...”
They also had one Star Trek TNG episode that featured a Dyson Sphere. That was the first time I’d heard of him, and got me interested in it’s theoretical possibility and potentional.
Strange how you come by knowledge...had I missed that episode, I might still not know of him, or it.
Dyson never was never actually awarded a PhD.
His comments on the PhD system
“...................................
Oh, yes. I’m very proud of not having a Ph.D. I think the Ph.D. system is an abomination. It was invented as a system for educating German professors in the 19th century, and it works well under those conditions. It’s good for a very small number of people who are going to spend their lives being professors. But it has become now a kind of union card that you have to have in order to have a job, whether it’s being a professor or other things, and it’s quite inappropriate for that. It forces people to waste years and years of their lives sort of pretending to do research for which they’re not at all well-suited. In the end, they have this piece of paper which says they’re qualified, but it really doesn’t mean anything. The Ph.D. takes far too long and discourages women from becoming scientists, which I consider a great tragedy. So I have opposed it all my life without any success at all. . .”
..................................”
Agree, but unfortunately its the system that’s currently in place.
No, but the name (Daystrom) was similar.
IIRC, this is the guy whose theories came to life in Larry Niven's Ringworld novels.
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