Thomas Gold

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This article is about Thomas Gold, an Austrian astrophysicist. For Thomas Ruggles Gold, a United States Representative from New York, see Thomas R. Gold.
Thomas Gold
Born May 22, 1920 (1920-05-22)
Vienna, Austria
Died June 22, 2004 (2004-06-23)
Nationality Austrian
Fields Astrophysics
Institutions Cornell University

Thomas Gold (May 22, 1920 – June 22, 2004) was an Austrian born astrophysicist, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society (London). 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.

Contents

[edit] 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, and was buried in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery (Ithaca, New York, USA).[1]

[edit] 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 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.

[edit] 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,[2] 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.[3]

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.[4] He has been accused of stealing the abiogenic theory outright from Soviet geologists who first published it in the 1950s. [5] Although he later credited Soviet research, it is claimed that he first published a paper on the abiogenic theory in 1979 without citing any of the Soviet literature on the subject.[6] Gold's defenders maintain[citation needed] 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[citation needed] 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 do not 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. Though this does not 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 does not 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.[7]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gold is buried in the rear section of the cemetery.
  2. ^ Gold T (1992). "The Deep Hot Biosphere". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 89 (13): 6045. doi:10.1073/pnas.89.13.6045. PMID 1631089. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/89/13/6045. 
  3. ^ "New undersea vent suggests snake-headed mythology". EurekaAert. April 18 2007. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/du-nuv041707.php. Retrieved on 2007-04-18. 
  4. ^ Thomas Gold, 1999, The Deep Hot Biosphere, Springer, ISBN 0387952535
  5. ^ http://www.gasresources.net/Plagiarism(Overview).htm
  6. ^ http://www.gasresources.net/VAKreplytBriggs.htm
  7. ^ "Abiogenic Hydrocarbon Production at Lost City Hydrothermal Field". Science. February 2008. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/319/5863/604. 

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

  • Thomas Gold - Original Web pages recovered by Rolf Martens.
  • AAPG.org - 'Gas Origin Theories to be Studied (abiogenic gas debate), David Brown, Explorer (November, 2002)
  • Web.archive.net - Thomas Gold homepage on Web.archive.org (last updated October, 2000)
  • NIH.gov - 'The Deep Hot Biosphere' (scientific paper), Thomas Gold, (July, 1992)
  • Thomas Gold
  • Thomas Gold (obituary)
  • GasResources.net - 'Dismissal of the Claims of a Biological Connection for Natural Petroleum', J. F. Kenney, Ac. Ye. F. Shnyukov, V. A. Krayushkin, I. K. Karpov, V. G. Kutcherov, I. N. Plotnikova, Energia, Vol 22, No 3, pp 26-34, 2001
  • Guardian.co.uk - 'Thomas Gold: The science maverick who challenged establishment thinking - and quite often turned out to be right' (obituary), Anthony Tucker, The Guardian (June 24, 2004)
  • Nature.com - 'Goldmine yields clues for life on Mars' (report on discovery of bacteria found living on hydrogen gas 3.5km below the Earth's surface), Nature
  • NSF.gov - 'Hot Stuff: Iron-Reducing Archaeon Respires to Greatness: From the depths, microbe "Strain 121" takes life to its hottest known limits' (about deep hot bacteria producing magnetite), National Science Foundation (August 14, 2003 press release)
  • SPE.org - 'Unconventional Ideas About Unconventional Gas', Walter Rose, Hans Olaf Pfannkuch, Society of Petroleum Engineers Unconventional Gas Recovery Symposium (May 16-18, 1982)
  • Thomas Gold obituary in The Telegraph.
  • [1] Current Paper Supporting Gold's Deep Earth Gas Hypothesis.
  • Oral History interview transcript with Thomas Gold 30 September 1983, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
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