lpetrich
Contributor
Freeman Dyson, Visionary Technologist, Is Dead at 96 - The New York Times
Freeman Dyson was born in 1923, and in 1946, when at Cornell University, he published an important paper on "quantum electrodynamics", the quantum-mechanical theory of the electromagnetic field and its interactions.
QED, as it is abbreviated, is what Richard Feynman got a Nobel Prize in, and QED is a foundation stone of the Standard Model of particle physics.
But he became best-known as a technological visionary, proposing rockets powered by nuclear explosions and colonizing the Solar System. He even proposed that a super advanced civilization might disassemble some planets and assemble the pieces in some huge sphere around its star - a "Dyson Sphere".
But he liked being a scientific contrarian and he warned against confusing mathematical abstractions with ultimate truth.
He also dismissed predictions of global-warming effects, calling CO2 good for plants and saying that warming would prevent another Ice Age.
Freeman Dyson was born in 1923, and in 1946, when at Cornell University, he published an important paper on "quantum electrodynamics", the quantum-mechanical theory of the electromagnetic field and its interactions.
QED, as it is abbreviated, is what Richard Feynman got a Nobel Prize in, and QED is a foundation stone of the Standard Model of particle physics.
But he became best-known as a technological visionary, proposing rockets powered by nuclear explosions and colonizing the Solar System. He even proposed that a super advanced civilization might disassemble some planets and assemble the pieces in some huge sphere around its star - a "Dyson Sphere".
But he liked being a scientific contrarian and he warned against confusing mathematical abstractions with ultimate truth.
He also dismissed predictions of global-warming effects, calling CO2 good for plants and saying that warming would prevent another Ice Age.
