Everything about Thomas Gold totally explained
Thomas Gold (
May 22,
1920 –
June 22,
2004) was an
Austrian born
astrophysicist, a professor of
astronomy at
Cornell University, and a member of the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences. Gold was one of three young
Cambridge scientists who in the 1950s proposed the now mostly abandoned
'steady state' hypothesis of the
universe. Gold's work crossed academic and scientific boundaries, into
biophysics,
astrophysics,
space engineering, and
geophysics.
Life
Gold was born into a
Jewish family in
Vienna,
Austria, he was educated at
Zuoz College in
Switzerland, and in the
UK at
Trinity College, Cambridge. At the start of
World War II, he endured
internment as an enemy alien, during which time he met
Hermann Bondi. Once released, he worked with Bondi and
Fred Hoyle (near
Dunsfold in
Surrey) on
radar, a partnership that would extend into astrophysics. Together, the three upset existing dogma with their
unorthodox theories on the nature of the
cosmos. He later worked at the
Royal Greenwich Observatory, in
Herstmonceux,
Sussex,
England, and at
Harvard University, in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In early
1959 he accepted an appointment at
Cornell University, which had offered him the opportunity to set up an
interdisciplinary unit for
radiophysics and space research, and take charge of the Department of Astronomy. He remained at Cornell until his death.
He was married twice: to Merle Tuberg in
1947 and to Carvel Beyer in
1972. He had three daughters by his first wife and one by his second. He died at the age of 84.
Astrophysics
Gold carried out research on cosmology and on
magnetic fields, and coined the term
'magnetosphere' for the Earth's magnetic fields. Along with Bondi, he developed the
steady-state theory. Soon after the discovery of
pulsars in
1968, Gold and
Fred Hoyle correctly identified these objects as rapidly rotating
neutron stars with strong
magnetic fields.
For a number of years, Gold promoted the idea that a thick layer of dust would cover many portions of the surface of the
Moon. His opinion influenced the design of the
American Surveyor lunar landing probes, but their precautions appeared excessive, as Gold had overestimated the extent to which cyclic thermal expansion and contraction would pulverize lunar surface rock. Regardless, he was prescient in proposing the general composition of the lunar regolith.
He won the
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in
1985.
Origins of petroleum
» "Hydrocarbons are not biology reworked by geology (as the traditional view would hold) but rather geology reworked by biology." – Thomas Gold
Gold achieved fame for his
1992 paper "The Deep Hot Biosphere" in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which presented a controversial view of the origin of
coal,
oil, and
gas deposits, a theory of an
abiogenic petroleum origin. The theory suggests coal and
crude oil deposits have their origins in
natural gas flows which feed
bacteria living at extreme depths under the surface of the Earth; in other words, oil and coal are produced through tectonic forces, rather than from the decomposition of fossils. At the beginning of his 1992 paper Gold also referred to
ocean vents that pump bacteria from the depth of the earth towards the ocean floor in support of his views. A number of new such
hydrothermal vents have since been discovered, as recently as 2007.
Gold also published a book of the same title in
1999, which expanded on the arguments in his 1992 paper and included speculations on the
origin of life. He has been accused of stealing the abiogenic theory outright from
Soviet geologists who first published it in the 1950s
(External Link
). Although he later credited Soviet research, it's claimed that he first published a paper on the abiogenic theory in 1979 without citing any of the Soviet literature on the subject
(External Link). Gold's defenders maintain that these charges are unfounded: they say that, after first formulating his views on petroleum in 1979, he began finding the papers by Soviet geologists and had them translated. He was both disappointed (that his ideas were not original) and delighted (because such independent formulation of these ideas added weight to the hypothesis). They insist that he always credited the Soviet work once he knew about it.
According to Gold and the
Soviet geologists who originated the abiogenic theory, bacteria feeding on the oil accounts for the presence of biological debris in
hydrocarbon fuels, obviating the need to resort to a
biogenic theory for the origin of the latter. The flows of underground
hydrocarbons may also explain oddities in the concentration of other mineral deposits.
Most
western geologists and
petrologists consider petroleum abiogenic theories implausible and believe the biogenic theory of
'fossil fuel' formation adequately explains all observed hydrocarbon deposits. Most geologists do recognize the geologic
carbon cycle includes subducted carbon, which returns to the surface, with studies showing the carbon does rise in various ways. Gold and geology experts point out the biogenic theories don't explain phenomena such as
helium in oil fields and oil fields associated with deep geologic features.
However, recent discoveries have shown that
bacteria live at depths far greater than previously believed. Whilst this doesn't prove Gold's theory, it may lend support to its arguments.
A
thermal depolymerization process which converts animal waste to carbon fuels does show some processes can be done without bacterial action, but doesn't explain details of natural oil deposits such as
magnetite production.
An article on
abiogenic hydrocarbon production in the February 2008 issue of
Science Magazine reported how the abiotic synthesis of hydrocarbons in nature may occur in the presence of ultramafic rocks, water, and moderate amounts of heat.
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