Becher was a prolific writer of science, publishing a treatise on metallurgy (Metallurgia, 1660), and he was interested in alchemical subjects, such as the Philosopher's Stone (Tractatus de lapide trismegisto, 1654). Becher originated the Phlogiston theory, which was further developed by Stahl. Right, German chemist, Georg Ernst Stahl (1659-1734), in a 1715 engraving. Left, German physician and chemist, Johann Joachim Becher (1635-1682), in a circa 1682 engraving. Phlogiston theory was supplanted by caloric theory, which was then superseded by the mechanical theory of heat. Īs these three example illustrate, there's always considerable resistance to a change from the old ways, and some scientists will have trouble adjusting to the new paradigm. Examples of paradigm-shifting are the heliocentric solar system, relativity, and quantum theory. Finally, someone comes along with a new paradigm, and there's a paradigm shift. When little inconsistencies start to pile up in such a paradigm, scientists start to feel that things are not quite right. I wrote about the fiftieth anniversary of Kuhn's book in an earlier article (Fifty Years of Paradigm Shifting, February 25, 2013). While working within these paradigms, they are practicing "normal" science. As Thomas Kuhn's, explained in his 1962 book, " The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ," scientists work within a paradigm, which is the collection of the shared theories in their particular fields. While these are extreme examples, a scientist's desire to cling to old theories has always existed in science. Arp championed alternatives to the Big Bang throughout his life, even in light of pressing evidence in favor of that model. Arp was another who thought all could be explained by Hoyle's steady-state model as further developed by Indian cosmologist, Jayant Narlikar. There was no apparent mechanism to explain the supposed non-cosmological redshifts in quasars. Arp, a talented observational astronomer, published a 1966 book, the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which demonstrated that there was much still lacking in our understanding of galaxies at that time. ![]() This observation, coupled with a statistic that large redshift quasars apparently associated with low redshift active galaxies, led Arp to believe that not all redshifts were "cosmological " that is, not all were a consequence of Hubble's law. In the 1960s, astronomer, Halton Arp, noticed what appeared to be a tidal tail linking NGC 7320 to its "neighbor" galaxy in the quintet. ( NASA, ESA, and Hubble SM4 ERO Team image, via Wikimedia Commons.) Hubble Space Telescope image of Stephan's Quintet.Īlthough the five galaxies appear to be in the same group, the upper left galaxy, NGC 7320, is in the foreground, and it's much closer to the Earth than the others. According to Hubble's law, NGC 7320 is very much closer to Earth than the others. The upper left galaxy, NGC 7320, has a redshift of just 790 kilometers-per-second (km/s), while the other four galaxies have the large redshift of about 6600 km/s. Hoyle became more isolated from the community of astronomers as he tried, over the years, to buttress his failing theory.Īnother example of clinging to theory despite mounting evidence involves Stephan's Quintet, as shown in the image. The necessary creation is quite small, being just one hydrogen atom per cubic meter per billion years, which is quite undetectable. ![]() One of their ideas was that matter was continually created as the universe expanded. My favorite among Hoyle's works that I've read is his 1966 novel, October the First Is Too LateĪs time went on, and evidence for the Big Bang accumulated, Hoyle and his colleagues devised various arguments for why data could be consistent with their steady state theory. Some of his works were co-authored with his son, Geoffrey Hoyle. He used the term pejoratively in 1949 but, somehow, the term was embraced by the opposition, since it was quite descriptive.ĭust jacket of the 1971 book, The Molecule Men, containing two short novels by Fred Hoyle and Geoffrey Hoyle.įred Hoyle was a prolific author of science fiction. It was Hoyle who coined the term " Big Bang," for the competing theory. One modern example of this from cosmology is the steady-state theory of the universe, championed primarily by astronomer, Fred Hoyle, and his colleagues, Thomas Gold and Hermann Bondi. ![]() The human nature to resist change has caused problems when scientists cling to old theories, even in the face of mounting evidence that discredits them. Man may not live by bread alone, but bread is a rather safe foodstuff, aside from the occasional aflatoxin. Pity the first man who was tempted to try a novel food, only to sicken and die as a warning to others. People cling to tried-and-true ways, and that's likely the reason why our species has survived.
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