Manny’s Reviews > Frontiers of Astronomy > Status Update
Manny
is on page 225 of 360
It is fashionable nowadays to use the appellation 'materialistic' in a derogatory sense, largely I suppose because it has become a catchword in a war of political ideologies. This apart, the notion that matter is something inert and uninteresting is surely the veriest nonsense. If there is anything more wonderful than matter in the sheer versatility of its behaviour, I have yet to hear tell of it.
— Nov 06, 2012 02:12PM
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Manny’s Previous Updates
Manny
is on page 325 of 360
If the Big Bang theory is correct, says a skeptical Hoyle back in 1955, then we should be able to see concrete traces that it has left. Indeed! It's a shame that the people arguing for it at the time weren't equally clear-thinking.
— Nov 09, 2012 11:31PM
Manny
is on page 300 of 360
How galactic clusters and galaxies are formed. It all sounds brilliantly convincing - except that it must be wrong, since Hoyle doesn't know about the dark matter which makes up 90% of the galaxy's mass.
— Nov 08, 2012 02:39PM
Manny
is on page 270 of 360
Most of the problems which Hoyle mentions as interesting and unsolved in 1955 are now things you can look up. But we still don't know where very energetic cosmic rays come from. Possibly the only recorded instance of Ayn Rand calling it right... you will recall that Robert Stadler in Atlas Shrugged sells his soul to Wesley Mouch in order to find out more about this fascinating phenomenon.
— Nov 07, 2012 11:14PM
Manny
is on page 245 of 360
How astronomers mapped our own galaxy's spiral arms, and why stars are always formed in clusters. This book really has some good stuff.
— Nov 07, 2012 12:36AM
Manny
is on page 192 of 360
Hoyle says that the detailed mechanism explaining why Cepheid variables pulsate is unknown, though the Wikipedia article claims that it was discovered several years before this book was published. Strange.
— Nov 06, 2012 01:10PM
Manny
is on page 164 of 360
Interestingly, the parts of this book that are about stars have withstood the test of time far better than those concerning the Earth and the whole universe - as far as I can tell, they're still pretty accurate. I think the explanation is simple. Astronomers can see millions of stars, but they only have one Earth and one universe to study.
— Nov 06, 2012 12:31AM
Manny
is on page 126 of 360
I'm updating the author's scorecard from modern knowledge as we go along. He scored a disastrous 0/10 on the Continental Drift event and his showing on Ice Ages also looked rather dodgy, but he's pulled back strongly on Formation of the Planets. Way to go, Fred!
— Nov 05, 2012 12:28PM
Manny
is on page 82 of 360
Fascinating to see the cutting-edge picture of astronomy in 1955! In chapter 4, the lunar maria are convincingly argued to be deep seas of dust. Unfortunately, we now know they're nothing of the kind.
— Nov 05, 2012 02:31AM
Manny
is on page 50 of 360
Oh wow. I knew Fred Hoyle didn't believe in the Big Bang or evolution, and now I discover that he didn't believe in plate tectonics either. It's really quite interesting to read old popular science books!
— Nov 04, 2012 02:19PM
