Everything about Ralph Asher Alpher totally explained
Ralph Asher Alpher (
February 3,
1921-
August 12,
2007) was a
U.S. cosmologist.
Childhood and Education
Alpher was the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant, Samuel Alpher, from Vitebsk, Russia. His mother, Rose, died of stomach cancer in 1938 and his father later remarried. Ralph graduated at age 15 from Theodore Roosevelt High School in Washington, D.C., and was Major and Commander of his school's Cadet program. He worked in the high school theater as stage manager for two years, supplementing his family's Depression-era income. He also learned
Gregg Shorthand, and in 1939 began working for the Director of the
Carnegie Institution as a stenographer. When it was discovered that he was studying physics, he was immediately reclassified as a Junior Physicist, and continued working as an applied physicist throughout the Second World War. He contributed to the development of the Mark 32 and Mark 45 detonators, torpedoes, the
proximity fuze, and other top-secret ordnance work and he was recognized at the end of the War with the Naval Ordnance Development Award (December 10, 1945—with Symbol). Perhaps because of the highly classified nature of his work for the
U.S. Navy and the
Office of Scientific Research and Development, Alpher's war time work has been somewhat obscured. Alpher was somewhat ambivalent about the nature of this work.
At age 16, he was offered a full scholarship to
MIT, but it was withdrawn after a mandatory meeting with an MIT alumnus in Washington, D.C., with no explanation or clarification. Instead, he earned his bachelor's degree and advanced graduate degrees in physics from
George Washington University, all the while working as a physicist on contract to the Navy, and eventually for the
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He met eminent Russian physicist
George Gamow at the University, who subsequently took him on as his doctoral student. This was somewhat of a coup, as Gamow was an eminent Soviet defector and one of the luminaries on the GWU faculty. It is apparent that Alpher provided much needed mathematical ability to support Gamow's theorizing.
While attending GWU Alpher met Louise, who was majoring in psychology at night school and working as a day secretary with the State Department. A month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Alpher and Louise were married.
Alpher-Bethe-Gamow theory (Alpha-Beta-Gamma)
Alpher's dissertation in 1948 dealt with a subject that came to be known as
Big Bang nucleosynthesis. The
Big Bang is a term coined initially in derision by
Fred Hoyle to describe the
cosmological model of the universe as expanding into its current state from a primordial condition of enormous density and temperature.
Nucleosynthesis is the explanation of how more complex elements are created out of simple elements in the moments following the Big Bang. Right after the Big Bang, when the temperature was extremely high, if any nuclear particles such as neutrons and protons, became bound together (being held together by the attractive
nuclear force) they'd be immediately broken apart by the high energy
photons(
quanta of
light) present in high density. In other words, at this extremely high temperature, the photons' kinetic energy would overwhelm the binding energy of the strong nuclear force. For example, if a proton and a neutron became bound together (forming
deuterium), it would be immediately broken apart by a high energy photon. However, as time progressed, the universe expanded and cooled and the average energy of the photons decreased. At some point, roughly one second after the Big Bang, the attractive force of nuclear attraction would begin to win out over the lower energy photons and
neutrons and
protons would begin to form stable
deuterium nuclei. As the universe continued to expand and cool, additional nuclear particles would bind with these light nuclei, building up heavier elements such as
helium, etc. Alpher argued that the Big Bang would create hydrogen, helium and heavier elements in the correct proportions to explain their abundance in the early universe. Alpher and Gamow's theory originally proposed that all atomic nuclei are produced by the successive capture of neutrons, one mass unit at a time. However, later study challenged the universality of the successive capture theory since no element was found to have a stable isotope with an atomic mass of five or eight, hindering the production of elements beyond helium.
Since this dissertation was (correctly) perceived to be ground-breaking, over 300 people attended the dissertation defense, including the Press, and articles about his predictions and a Herblock cartoon appeared in major newspapers. This was quite unusual for a doctoral dissertation. Later the same year, collaborating with Dr.
Robert Herman, Alpher predicted the temperature of the residual radiation (known as
cosmic background radiation) resulting from the hypothesized Big Bang.. However, Alpher's predictions concerning the comsic background radiation were more or less forgotten and they were rediscovered by
Robert Dicke and
Yakov Zel'dovich in the early 1960s. The existence of the cosmic background radiation and its temperature were measured experimentally in 1964 by two physicists working for
Bell Laboratories in
New Jersey,
Arno Penzias and
Robert Wilson, who were awarded the Nobel prize in physics for this work in 1978.
Although is name appears on the paper,
Hans Bethe had virtually no part in the development of the theory, although he later worked on related topics; Gamow added his name to make the seminal paper's title a
pun on "Alpha-Beta-Gamma"
, the first three letters of the
Greek alphabet. Thus, Alpher's independent dissertation was first published on April 1, 1948 in the
Physical Review with three authors. The humor engendered by the prodigious Gamow may at times have obscured the critical role Alpher played in developing the theory. Other scientists who read the paper may have assumed (erroneously) that Gamow and Bethe had been the primary contributors. Traditionally, dissertation advisors appear as second authors on dissertation publications.
Alpher and
Robert Herman were later awarded the
Henry Draper Medal in
1993. They were also awarded the
Magellanic Premium of the
American Philosophical Society in 1975, the Georges Vanderlinden Physics prize of the
Belgian Academy of Sciences, as well as significant awards of the New York Academy of Sciences and the
Franklin Institute of Philadelphia — in other words, nearly every significant professional recognition saving the Nobel Prize. Two Nobel Prizes in physics have been awarded for empirical work related to the cosmic background radiation — in 1978 to
Arno Penzias and
Robert Wilson and in 2006 to
John Mather and
George Smoot. Alpher and Herman (the latter, posthumously) published their own account of their work in cosmology in 2001,
Genesis of the Big Bang (Oxford University Press).
Alpher's seminal work was finally recognized in 2005 when he was awarded the National Medal of Science (the Nation's highest scientific honor). The citation for the award reads "For his unprecedented work in the areas of nucleosynthesis, for the prediction that universe expansion leaves behind background radiation, and for providing the model for the Big Bang theory." The medal was presented to his son Dr. Victor S. Alpher on July 27, 2007 by President George W. Bush, as his father couldn't travel to receive the award. Ralph Alpher died following an extended illness on August 12, 2007. He had been in failing health since falling and breaking his hip in February 2007.
The Rest of Alpher's career
In 1954 Alpher moved to a position with the
General Electric Company's Research and Development Center.
From 1987 to 2004 he served as Distinguished Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy at
Union College of Union University in Schenectady, New York, during which time he was able to return to research and teaching. During all this time he continued to publish major peer-reviewed scientific papers and was active in community service for Public Broadcasting. Dr. Alpher was also (1987-2004) Director of The
Dudley Observatory.
In 1986 he was recognized with the Distinguished Alumnus Achievement Award of the George Washington University in 1986. His academic achievements were all the more remarkable since all of his degrees were achieved at night whilst working for the Navy and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory during the daytime. In 2004 he joined the Emeritus faculty at Union and was Emeritus Director of Dudley. He also received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Union College and the Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute. From 2005 until his passing, he remained Emeritus Director of the Dudley Observatory and Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Union College, Schenectady, New York.
Alpher's approach to science
Alpher told Joseph D'Agnese in his interview for Discover Magazine,
There are two reasons you do science. One is the altruistic feeling that maybe you can contribute to mankind's store of knowledge about the world. The other and more personal thing is you want the approbation of your peers. Pure and simple.Further Information
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