Thomas Gold, physicist and astrophysicist
(May 22, 1920 Vienna, Austria - June 22, 2004 Ithica, New York)

"Thomas Gold was a free-thinking physicist and astrophysicist who refused to bow to consensus. A prime mover in the theories of the steady state universe and the non-biological origin of crude oil, his work was admired by some and shunned by others.

Several of his theories were at first rejected and later discovered to be correct, such as his explanation of pulsars and of sound amplification in the ear. He never took any formal college-level physics courses.
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The Steady State Universe

In 1948, [mathematician Hermann] Bondi, Gold, and [theoretical physicist Fred] Hoyle published papers in support of their conclusion that the universe had existed for ever – the steady state universe.

Gold proposed the universe is expanding because, very occasionally, a hydrogen atom is created in intergalactic space from nothing. Eventually enough hydrogen accumulates to form a new galaxy.

To account for the rate of expansion of the universe deduced from Edwin Hubble’s red shifts, Hoyle explained that hydrogen creation must be:

“about one atom per century in a volume equal to the Empire State Building.”

Although their idea sounded unusual, the three scientists believed it was more credible than the alternative idea, that the whole universe was created instantly from nothing via, as Hoyle memorably described it, ‘a Big Bang.’
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How your Ears Capture Sound

... In two papers, one coauthored with [zoologist Richard] Pumphrey, Gold described his discovery that the cochlea amplifies sound by generating resonance through a positive feedback mechanism, gaining electrical energy from the animal itself.

Gold explained this was the only credible mechanism for our ears to discriminate between different frequencies of sound. His feedback theory was either attacked or ignored until the 1970s, when it was discovered to be correct...[and] was rewarded with a fellowship at Cambridge rather than a Nobel Prize.

Pulsars

...In 1969, by which time he had been head of astronomy at Cornell University for almost a decade, Gold requested permission to speak at the first academic conference on pulsars on May 20/21 in New York. However, his pulsar paper was rejected on the basis it would encourage other ‘crazy’ suggestions.

Gold immediately submitted his paper to Nature, which published it on May 25, just five days after he sent it. Following the lines of argument he had used in 1951, he argued that pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars – the whole star completing a rotation on a timescale of seconds or fractions of a second. Gold said the combination of high rotation speed and intense magnetic field would push plasma in the neutron star’s magnetosphere to speeds that were significant fractions of the speed of light, leading to the regular radio pulses.

His ‘crazy’ idea turned out to be correct.

The Magnetosphere

In 1959, by now a professor at Harvard, Gold was studying magnetic fields in space. He coined the term ‘magnetosphere’ to describe the region above the ionosphere where ionized gases up to 10 earth radii from our planet are controlled by Earth’s own magnetic field.

NASA and Moon Dust

Starting in the 1950s, Gold worked as a consultant to NASA. His contributions included:

Moon Dust

In 1955 Gold predicted a dust layer on the moon caused by its ongoing bombardment by solar system debris, the powerful radiation bombardment from the sun, and the huge daily temperature swings. Gold said the dust explained the moon’s relatively low reflectivity of light.

At first he expressed concerns about astronauts landing in the dust – he claimed the press misrepresented him with claims astronauts would sink – Gold theorized that their boots would sink only 3 cm, or just over an inch, into the dust. His theory was derided by other scientists, including his use of the term ‘moon dust.’

In fact, Gold was correct about the consistency of the moon’s ‘soil’ or regolith, which turned out to be powdery. He noted that “in one area as they walked along, (the astronauts) sank in between five and eight inches.”

Apollo’s Camera

Gold designed a stereo camera, the Apollo Lunar Surface Closeup Camera, used on Apollos 11, 12, and 14.

Critic of NASA

Gold believed unmanned space missions should be favored over manned missions, because they could gather more scientific data at much lower risk and cost. NASA threatened Gold that he would lose funding if he testified against their case for the Space Shuttle. Nevertheless, Gold testified and soon his funding was indeed withdrawn. NASA also dropped him from various scientific committees he sat on.

Given the Space Shuttle’s history, there is a strong case that Gold was correct in his opposition to the project.

Abiogenic Petroleum

One of Gold’s most controversial proposals was that fossil fuels – the decay products of life from long ago – are actually primordial in origin. He believed they existed when Earth formed in the early days of the solar system and have slowly seeped nearer to our planet’s surface from the upper mantle. He came up with his theory when he became aware that meteorites contain hydrocarbons. He acknowledged that some hydrocarbons on Earth are produced by decay of dead things, but believed most are primordial.

Gold first began work on this theory in the 1950s: Fred Hoyle wrote about Gold’s theories in Frontiers of Astronomy in 1955. The Russian geologist Alexandrovich Kudryavtsev had already proposed, in 1951, that Earth’s hydrocarbons could be of non-biological origin, although Gold was unaware of this.

The current scientific consensus is that fossil fuels are primarily of biological origin, although there is still room for Gold’s view ultimately to be proved correct.

Prizes

1972: American Philosophical Society J. F. Lewis Award
1979: Alexander von Humboldt Prize
1985: Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal for Geophysics"
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Author: Doug Stewart (The Doc), a Ph.D. qualified scientist
Citation: "Thomas Gold." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 30 Sep. 2017. Web. 5/21/2021
<www.famousscientists.org/thomas-gold/>.
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Images

(1) Thomas Gold, Austrian astrophysicist and astronomer
By Source, Fair use,
<en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23323851>

(2) Big Bang vs Continuous Creation. Bondi, Gold, and Hoyle proposed that the universe had existed forever, expanding because hydrogen atoms are continuously created.
<www.famousscientists.org/thomas-gold/>

(3) Ear Lobe and Cochlea
<www.famousscientists.org/thomas-gold/>

(4) Chandra X-ray image of The Crab Nebula with a pulsar at its heart. The pulsar here is a rotating neutron star about 18 miles across that spins 30 times a second. It is the remains of a supernova in the year 1054. Although it is 6,500 light years from Earth, for two months or so in 1054 it was the brightest object in Earth’s night sky except for the moon and visible for about three weeks during the day. It was recorded in both China and the Middle East.
Image courtesy NASA/CXC/SAO.
<www.famousscientists.org/thomas-gold/>

(5) Particles from the solar wind meet Earth’s magnetosphere.
<www.famousscientists.org/thomas-gold/>

(6) Left: The surface of the moon, with dust Gold had predicted. Right: Moon dust brought back to Earth.
<www.famousscientists.org/thomas-gold/>