An astrophysicist, Hoyle didn’t really believe that the “Big Bang” was the start of the universe, but he was the one who coined the term, using it with derision in a lecture. “Every cluster of galaxies, every star, every atom had a beginning, but the universe itself did not,” he once said.
It was also Hoyle (working with William Fowler, Geoffrey Burbidge, and Margaret Burbidge) who realized that all chemical elements heavier than helium were produced by nucleosynthesis (nuclear reactions inside stars). He also led the group that developed radar in World War II. Sir Fred Hoyle died August 20 in Bournemouth, England. He was 86.
Note: Hoyle never did accept the Big Bang theory, but since his death most astrophysicists have rejected Hoyle’s preferred alternative, the Steady State theory, in favor of the Big Bang.