Description
This book tells the fascinating history of cosmology using a series of fictitious interview transcripts with the field’s leading scientists, including giants such as Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, and George Gamow, to give the reader a lively and almost authentic impression of the problems that faced this early generation of cosmologists. After graduation from the University of Copenhagen in physics and chemistry, and a period as a high school teacher, Helge Kragh became Associate Professor at Cornell University, Departments of History and Physics. Since 1990 he has held positions as Curator at the Steno Museum for Science and Medicine, Aarhus University, and as Professor of History of Science at the University of Oslo. In 1997 he was appointed Professor of History of Science and Technology at Aarhus University, Denmark. Kragh is a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, the International Academy for History of Science, the European Society for History of Science, the European Physical Society, and the European Academy of Science. 1 Kristian Birkeland: from aurora to the universe; 2 Svante Arrhenius’ eternal cosmos; 3 Karl Schwarzschild: astronomer and physicist; 4 Hugo von Seeliger and stellar cosmology; 5 Albert Einstein’s finite universe; 6 Willem de Sitter and the expanding universe; 7 George Lemaitre’s primeval atom; 8 Arthur Eddington’s rationalistic cosmology; 9 Edwin Hubble, observational cosmologist; 10 George Gamow: nuclear physics and the early universe; 11 Fred Hoyle and Hermann Bondi: the steady state theory; 12 Paul Dirac and the magic of large numbers; 13 Robert Dicke and the big bang
