65: Burbidge Burbidge Fowler & Hoyle

 
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In 1957, a paper was published in Reviews of Modern Physics that changed astrophysics at its core. Well, we say "paper" — it was more of a tome: a hundred pages of research and review that laid out in detail how the elements of the periodic table are made in nuclear processes in stars and supernovae. The authors — Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge, William Fowler and Fred Hoyle — are all legendary figures in astrophysics. The last of the  authors, Margaret Burbidge, died on 5 April 2020 at the age of 100. We look back on the lives and contributions to astronomy of this great quartet of scientists, focussing on their pivotal B-squared-F-H paper.

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Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

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Things we talked about in this episode:

The BBFH paper

Nucleosynthesis

P-P chain reaction

The Hot CNO cycle

Margaret Burbidge obituary, 5 April 2020

Geoffrey Burbidge obituary, 6 Feb 2010

William Fowler

The Nobel Prize 1983

Frank Hoyle

Hoyle and the Big Bang

Panspermia