Paul Charles William Davies AM (nacido el 22 de abril de 1946) es un físico , escritor y locutor inglés , profesor de la Universidad Estatal de Arizona y director de BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. Está afiliado al Instituto de Estudios Cuánticos de la Universidad Chapman en California. Ha ocupado cargos académicos anteriores en la Universidad de Cambridge , University College London , University of Newcastle upon Tyne , University of Adelaide y Macquarie University . Sus intereses de investigación se encuentran en los campos de la cosmología , la teoría cuántica de campos.y astrobiología . Propuso que un viaje de ida a Marte podría ser una opción viable.
Paul Davies SOY | |
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Nació | Paul Charles William Davies 22 de abril de 1946 Londres , Reino Unido |
alma mater | University College de Londres |
Conocido por | Efecto Fulling-Davies-Unruh Estado de vacío Bunch-Davies |
Premios |
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Carrera científica | |
Campos | Físico |
Instituciones | |
Tesis | Contribuciones a la física teórica: (i) Amortiguación de radiación en el continuo óptico; (ii) Una teoría cuántica de la electrodinámica de Wheeler-Feynman [ cita requerida ] (1970) |
Asesor de doctorado | |
Otros asesores académicos | Fred Hoyle ( asesor postdoctoral ) |
Sitio web | cosmos |
En 2005, asumió la presidencia del SETI : Grupo de trabajo de ciencia y tecnología posterior a la detección de la Academia Internacional de Astronáutica . Davies forma parte del Consejo Asesor de METI (Mensajería de Inteligencia Extraterrestre) .
Educación
Nacido el 22 de abril de 1946, Davies se crió en Finchley , Londres . Asistió a Woodhouse Grammar School y luego estudió física en el University College London , obteniendo una licenciatura en ciencias con honores de primera clase en 1967.
En 1970, completó su doctorado bajo la supervisión de Michael J. Seaton y Sigurd Zienau en University College London. [1] [2] Luego llevó a cabo una investigación postdoctoral con Fred Hoyle en la Universidad de Cambridge .
Investigación científica
Las investigaciones de Davies han incluido física teórica , cosmología y astrobiología ; su investigación se ha centrado principalmente en el área de la teoría cuántica de campos en el espacio-tiempo curvo . Sus contribuciones notables son el llamado efecto Fulling-Davies-Unruh , según el cual un observador que acelera a través del espacio vacío será sometido a un baño de radiación térmica inducida , y el estado de vacío Bunch-Davies , que a menudo se utiliza como base para explicar las fluctuaciones en la radiación cósmica de fondo que quedó del Big Bang . Un artículo en coautoría con Stephen Fulling y William Unruh fue el primero en sugerir que los agujeros negros que se evaporan a través del efecto Hawking pierden masa como resultado de un flujo de energía negativa que entra en el agujero desde el espacio circundante. Davies ha tenido una asociación de larga data con el problema de la flecha del tiempo , y también fue uno de los primeros defensores de la teoría de que la vida en la Tierra puede haber venido de Marte, envuelta en rocas expulsadas por impactos de asteroides y cometas. También es un propagador de la investigación científica y el desarrollo de tecnología para prevenir futuros impactos de cometas que amenacen el desarrollo o la existencia de la humanidad. [3] Durante su estadía en Australia ayudó a establecer el Centro Australiano de Astrobiología.
Davies fue coautor con Felisa Wolfe-Simon del artículo de Science de 2011 "Una bacteria que puede crecer mediante el uso de arsénico en lugar de fósforo". [4] Los informes que refutaban los aspectos más significativos de los resultados originales se publicaron en la misma revista en 2012. [5] Tras la publicación de los artículos que cuestionaban las conclusiones del artículo original de Science que describía por primera vez GFAJ-1, el sitio web Retraction Watch argumentó que el artículo original debe retirarse debido a la tergiversación de datos críticos. [6] [7]
Davies es investigador de alcance en el Centro de Convergencia de Ciencias Físicas y Biología del Cáncer de la Universidad Estatal de Arizona . Esto es parte de un programa establecido por el Instituto Nacional de la Salud 's Instituto Nacional del Cáncer de involucrar a los físicos en la investigación del cáncer que se ha creado una red de 12 Físicas Centros de Ciencias-Oncología . [8] Davies ha sido criticado por promover la hipótesis de que el cáncer es un atavismo evolutivo o un retroceso a la vida unicelular, una afirmación que es biológicamente infundada. [9]
Premios
Davies' talent as a communicator of science has been recognized in Australia by an Advance Australia Award and two Eureka Prizes, and in the UK by the 2001 Kelvin Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics, and the 2002 Faraday Prize by The Royal Society.
Davies received the Templeton Prize in 1995.
Davies was made a member of the Order of Australia in the 2007 Queen's birthday honours list.
The minor planet 6870 Pauldavies is named after him.
Trabajo mediático
Davies writes and comments on scientific and philosophical issues. He made a documentary series for BBC Radio 3, and two Australian television series, The Big Questions and More Big Questions. His BBC documentary The Cradle of Life featured the subject of his Faraday Prize lecture. He writes regularly for newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has been guest on numerous radio and television programmes including the children's podcast programme Ask A Biologist.
A 2007 opinion piece "Taking Science on Faith" in The New York Times,[10] generated controversy over its exploration of the role of faith in scientific inquiry. Davies argued that the faith scientists have in the immutability of physical laws has origins in Christian theology, and that the claim that science is "free of faith" is "manifestly bogus."[10] The Edge Foundation presented a criticism of Davies' article written by Jerry Coyne, Nathan Myhrvold, Lawrence Krauss, Scott Atran, Sean Carroll, Jeremy Bernstein, PZ Myers, Lee Smolin, John Horgan, Alan Sokal and a response by Davies beginning I was dismayed at how many of my detractors completely misunderstood what I had written. Indeed, their responses bore the hallmarks of a superficial knee-jerk reaction to the sight of the words "science" and "faith" juxtaposed.[11] While atheists Richard Dawkins[12] and Victor J. Stenger[13] have criticised Davies' public stance on science and religion, others, including the John Templeton Foundation, have praised his work.[citation needed]
Davies wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal describing the background to the December 2010 arsenic bacteria press conference and stating that he supported the finding of Felisa Wolfe-Simon that arsenic can replace phosphorus because "I had the advantage of being unencumbered by knowledge. I dropped chemistry at the age of 16, and all I knew about arsenic came from Agatha Christie novels."[14] He also made the statement, "Well, I would be astonished if this was the only arsenic-based organism on Earth and Felisa just happened to scrape it up from the bottom of Mono Lake on the first try, It's quite clear that it is the tip of an iceberg. I think it's a window into a whole new world of microbiology. And as a matter of fact, she already has 20 or so candidate other organisms that we're very anxious to take a look at. I think we're going to see a whole new domain of life here."[15] It was later independently demonstrated that the organism's DNA contained no arsenic at all.[16][17][18][19] Concerns have been raised about his responsibility as one of Wolfe-Simon's co-authors.[20]
En la cultura popular
- The 1996 novel Naive, Super, by Norwegian writer Erlend Loe (translated by Tor Ketil Solberg), refers to Davies frequently.
- Numbers (season 5, episode 12) refers to Paul Davies' Cosmic Think Tank at Arizona State.
- In Lawrence Leung's Unbelievable (season 1, episode 3), Leung interviews Paul Davies about alien abduction, and Davies discusses having experienced sleep paralysis.
- Through the Wormhole, season 3, episode 1 "Will We Survive First Contact?"
- The 2013 novel The Extinction Machine, by American writer Jonathan Maberry, refers to Paul Davies.
Obras
Popular books
- 1974 The Physics of Time Asymmetry, University of California Press, Berkeley, California, ISBN 0-520-03247-0
- 1978 The Runaway Universe, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-460-04286-6
- 1979 Stardoom, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd, ISBN 0-00-635318-5
- 1980 Other Worlds, Touchstone/Simon and Schuster, ISBN 0-460-04400-1
- 1980 "The Search for Gravity Waves", Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-23197-3
- 1981 The Edge of Infinity, Penguin USA, ISBN 0-14-023194-3
- 1982 The Accidental Universe, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-28692-1
- 1982 Quantum Fields in Curved Space, (with N.D. Birrell), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-27858-9
- 1983 God and the New Physics, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-14-022550-1
- 1984 Superforce, Touchstone, ISBN 0-04-539006-1
- 1986 The Ghost in the Atom, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-31316-3
- 1987 The Cosmic Blueprint, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-04-440182-5
- 1988 Superstrings: A Theory of Everything, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-35741-1
- 1989 The New Physics, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-30420-2
- 1991 The Matter Myth, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-670-83585-4
- 1992 The Mind of God, Simon & Schuster UK, ISBN 0-671-71069-9
- 1994 The Last Three Minutes, Basic Books, ISBN 1-85799-336-5
- 1995 Are We Alone?, Basic Books, ISBN 0-14-025179-0
- 1995 About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution, Penguin Books, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-670-84761-5
- 1998 The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-684-83799-4
- 2002 How to Build a Time Machine, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-100534-3
- 2003 The Origin of Life, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-101302-8
- 2007 The Goldilocks Enigma, also under the title Cosmic Jackpot, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ISBN 0-14-102326-0
- 2008 Quantum Aspects of Life (eds. Derek Abbott, Paul C. W. Davies, and Arun K. Pati, with foreword by Sir Roger Penrose), Imperial College Press, ISBN 1-84816-267-7
- 2010 The Eerie Silence, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ISBN 1-4001-6551-2
- 2010 Information and the Nature of Reality: From Physics to Metaphysics, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-76225-0
- 2019 The Demon in the Machine, Allen Lane, ISBN 978-0241309599
Technical books
- 1974 The Physics of Time Asymmetry, University of California Press, Berkeley California,
- 1982 (with N. D. Birrell) Quantum Fields in Curved Space, Series: Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics, Cambridge University Press.[21]
- 1984 Quantum Mechanics, (with David S. Betts), 2nd edition, CRC Press, 1994.
Essays and papers
- "Are We Alone in the Universe?" in The New York Times, 18 November 2013.
- "Taking Science on Faith" in The New York Times, 24 November 2007.
- "What Happened Before the Big Bang?" in God for the 21st Century, Russell Stannard ed., Templeton Foundation Press, 2000, ISBN 1-890151-39-4
- Davies, P.C.W. (2012). "Footprints of alien technology". Acta Astronautica. 73: 250–257. Bibcode:2012AcAau..73..250D. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2011.06.022.
Notas al pie
- ^ a b Paul Davies at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^ Davies, Paul (1970). Contributions to theoretical physics: (i) Radiation damping in the optical continuum; (ii) A quantum theory of Wheeler–Feynham electrodynamics (PhD thesis). University College London.(subscription required)
- ^ "Humanity must build technology to 'destroy large incoming asteroid', says Richard Dawkins". Retrieved 24 November 2020.
- ^ Wolfe-Simon, F.; Blum, J. S.; Kulp, T. R.; Gordon, G. W.; Hoeft, S. E.; Pett-Ridge, J.; Stolz, J. F.; Webb, S. M.; Weber, P. K.; Davies, P. C. W.; Anbar, A. D.; Oremland, R. S. (2011). "A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus". Science. 332 (6034): 1163–1166. Bibcode:2011Sci...332.1163W. doi:10.1126/science.1197258. PMID 21127214.
- ^ Erb, T. J.; Kiefer, P.; Hattendorf, B.; Gunther, D.; Vorholt, J. A. (2012). "GFAJ-1 is an Arsenate-Resistant, Phosphate-Dependent Organism". Science. 337 (6093): 467–470. Bibcode:2012Sci...337..467E. doi:10.1126/science.1218455. PMID 22773139. S2CID 20229329.
- ^ David Sanders (9 July 2012). "Despite refutation, Science arsenic life paper deserves retraction, scientist argues". Retraction Watch. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
- ^ Sanders, David. "Why one biologist says it's not too late to retract the "arsenic life" paper".
- ^ "Center for Convergence of Physical Science and Cancer Biology". Retrieved 10 December 2020.
- ^ Gorski, David (28 July 2014). ""Atavistic oncology": Another dubious cancer therapy to be avoided". Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
- ^ a b Davies, Paul (24 November 2007). "Taking Science on Faith". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
- ^ Jerry Coyne; Nathan Myhrvold; Lawrence Krauss; Scott Atran; Sean Carroll; Jeremy Bernstein; PZ Myers; Lee Smolin; John Horgan; Alan Sokal. "On "Taking Science on Faith" by Paul C. Davies". Edge.org. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
- ^ Richard Dawkins (2006). "A Deeply Religious Non-Believer". The God Delusion. Mariner Books. pp. 31–50. ISBN 978-0-618-91824-9.
- ^ Victor J. Stenger. "Review of The Cosmic Blueprint". Science & Theology News. University of Colorado. Archived from the original on 7 June 2010.
- ^ Davies, Paul (4 December 2010). "The 'Give Me a Job' Microbe". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
- ^ "Bacterium calls for biology rewrite: Transcript". ABC.net.au. 4 December 2010. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
- ^ "Studies refute arsenic bug claim". BBC News. 9 July 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
- ^ Tobias J. Erb; Patrick Kiefer; Bodo Hattendorf; Detlef Gunter; et al. (8 July 2012). "GFAJ-1 Is an Arsenate-Resistant, Phosphate-Dependent Organism". Science. 337 (6093): 467–70. Bibcode:2012Sci...337..467E. doi:10.1126/science.1218455. PMID 22773139. S2CID 20229329.
- ^ RRResearch By Rosie Redfield. 16 January 2012
- ^ Marshall Louis Reaves; Sunita Sinha; Joshua Rabinowitz; Leonid Kruglyak; et al. (8 July 2012). "Absence of Detectable Arsenate in DNA from Arsenate-Grown GFAJ-1 Cells". Science. 337 (6093): 470–3. arXiv:1201.6643. Bibcode:2012Sci...337..470R. doi:10.1126/science.1219861. PMC 3845625. PMID 22773140.
- ^ Redfield, Rosie (3 February 2012). "Authorship without responsibility?". RRResearch. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
- ^ Ørsted, Bent (1983). "Review: Quantum Fields in Curved Space, by N. D. Birrell and P. C. W. Davies" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.). 8 (3): 471–477. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1983-15124-8.
enlaces externos
- Official website