Editing Fred Hoyle (section)

===Origin of nucleosynthesis===
Hoyle authored the first two research papers ever published on synthesis of chemical elements heavier than helium by stellar nuclear reactions. The first of these<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hoyle|first1=F.|title=The Synthesis of the Elements from Hydrogen|journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society|volume=106|issue=5|year=1946|pages=343–383|issn=0035-8711|doi=10.1093/mnras/106.5.343|bibcode=1946MNRAS.106..343H|doi-access=free}}</ref> in 1946 showed that cores of stars will evolve to temperatures of billions of degrees, much hotter than temperatures considered for thermonuclear origin of stellar power in main-sequence stars. Hoyle showed that at such high temperatures the element iron can become much more abundant than other heavy elements owing to thermal equilibrium among nuclear particles, explaining the high natural abundance of iron. This idea would later be called the ''e''{{&nbsp}}Process.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Burbidge|first1=E. Margaret|last2=Burbidge|first2=G. R.|last3=Fowler|first3=William A.|last4=Hoyle|first4=F.|title=Synthesis of the Elements in Stars|journal=Reviews of Modern Physics|publisher=American Physical Society (APS)|volume=29|issue=4|date=1 October 1957|issn=0034-6861|doi=10.1103/revmodphys.29.547|pages=547–650|bibcode=1957RvMP...29..547B|doi-access=free}}</ref> Hoyle's second foundational nucleosynthesis publication,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hoyle|first1=F.|title=On Nuclear Reactions Occurring in Very Hot STARS. I. the Synthesis of Elements from Carbon to Nickel.|journal=The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series|volume=1|year=1954|pages=121–146|issn=0067-0049|doi=10.1086/190005|bibcode=1954ApJS....1..121H}}</ref> published in 1954, showed that the elements between carbon and iron cannot be synthesized by such equilibrium processes. He attributed those elements to specific [[nuclear fusion reaction]]s between abundant constituents in concentric shells of evolved massive, pre-supernova stars. This startlingly modern picture is the accepted paradigm today for the [[supernova nucleosynthesis]] of these primary elements. In the mid-1950s, Hoyle became the leader of a group of talented experimental and theoretical physicists who met in Cambridge: [[William Alfred Fowler]], [[Margaret Burbidge]], and [[Geoffrey Burbidge]]. This group systematized basic ideas of how all the chemical elements in our universe were created, with this now being a field called [[nucleosynthesis]]. Famously, in 1957, this group produced the [[B2FH paper|B<sup>2</sup>FH paper]] (known for the initials of the four authors) in which the field of nucleosynthesis was organized into complementary nuclear processes. They added much new material on the synthesis of heavy elements by neutron-capture reactions, the so-called [[s process]] and the [[r process]]. So influential did the B<sup>2</sup>FH paper become that for the remainder of the twentieth century it became the default citation of almost all researchers wishing to cite an accepted origin for nucleosynthesis theory, and as a result, the path-breaking Hoyle 1954 paper fell into obscurity. Historical research in the 21st century<ref>Clayton, Donald D. "Hoyle's Equation", ''Science'' 318, 1876 (2007)</ref><ref>Clayton, Donald D. "Fred Hoyle, primary nucleosynthesis and radioactivity", ''New Astronomy Reviews'' 52, 360–363 (2008)</ref> has brought Hoyle's 1954 paper back to scientific prominence. Those historical arguments were first presented to a gathering of nucleosynthesis experts attending a 2007 conference at Caltech organized after the deaths of both Fowler and Hoyle to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of B<sup>2</sup>FH. Ironically the B<sup>2</sup>FH paper did not review Hoyle's 1954 supernova-shells attribution of the origin of elements between silicon and iron despite Hoyle's co-authorship of B<sup>2</sup>FH. Based on his many personal discussions with Hoyle<ref>"Fred Hoyle, primary nucleosynthesis and radioactivity" ''New Astronomy Reviews'' 52, 360–363 (2008), p. 363, footnote 1</ref> [[Donald D. Clayton]] has attributed this seemingly inexplicable oversight in B<sup>2</sup>FH to the lack of proofreading by Hoyle of the draft composed at Caltech in 1956 by G.&nbsp;R. Burbidge and E.&nbsp;M. Burbidge.<ref>"Hoyle's Equation" ''Science'' 318, 1876 (2007)</ref>

The second of Hoyle's nucleosynthesis papers also introduced an interesting use of the [[anthropic principle]], which was not then known by that name. In trying to work out the steps of [[stellar nucleosynthesis]], Hoyle calculated that one particular nuclear reaction, the [[triple-alpha process]], which generates [[carbon]] from helium, would require the carbon nucleus to have a very specific resonance energy and spin for it to work. The large amount of carbon in the universe, which makes it possible for [[carbon-based life]]-forms of any kind to exist, demonstrated to Hoyle that this nuclear reaction must work. Based on this notion, Hoyle therefore predicted the values of the energy, the nuclear spin and the parity of the compound state in the carbon nucleus formed by three alpha particles (helium nuclei), which was later borne out by experiment.<ref>Cook, Fowler, Lauritsen and Lauritsen, Phys. Rev. 107, 508 (1957)</ref>

This energy level, while needed to produce carbon in large quantities, was statistically very unlikely to fall where it does in the scheme of carbon energy levels. Hoyle later wrote:

{{Blockquote|Would you not say to yourself, "Some super-calculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom, otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly minuscule. A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question."|Fred Hoyle<ref>Hoyle, Fred "The Universe: Past and Present Reflections." ''Engineering and Science'', November 1981. pp.&nbsp;8–12</ref>}}

His co-worker [[William Alfred Fowler]] eventually won the [[Nobel Prize for Physics]] in 1983 (with [[Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar]]), but Hoyle's original contribution was overlooked by the electors, and many were surprised that such a notable astronomer missed out.<ref name="GuardianObit">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/oct/03/fred-hoyle-nobel-prize|title=Fred Hoyle: the scientist whose rudeness cost him a Nobel prize|first=Robin|last=McKie|date=2 October 2010|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> Fowler himself in an autobiographical sketch affirmed Hoyle's pioneering efforts:

{{blockquote|The concept of nucleosynthesis in stars was first established by Hoyle in 1946. This provided a way to explain the existence of elements heavier than [[helium]] in the universe, basically by showing that critical elements such as carbon could be generated in stars and then incorporated in other stars and planets when that star "[[stellar death|dies]]". The new stars formed now start off with these heavier elements and even heavier elements are formed from them. Hoyle theorized that other rarer elements could be explained by [[supernova]]s, the giant explosions which occasionally occur throughout the universe, whose temperatures and pressures would be required to create such elements.|William Fowler<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1983/fowler-autobio.html|title=William A. Fowler – Autobiography|publisher=Nobel Prize Committee|date=14 March 1995|access-date=15 September 2011}}</ref>}}