Fred Hoyle

Sir Fred Hoyle (1915 - 2001) was both an accomplished science fiction writer - his novels “A for Andromeda” [Hoyle 1962] and “The Black Cloud” [Hoyle 2010] are rightly placed among the masterpieces of science fiction of all times - and a Nobel Prize level scientist. It's well known that Hoyle was denied a Nobel Prize in Physics [Gregory 2005] that should have been rightfully his for his pioneering work on nucleosynthesis processes in stars.Tales of the Turing Church - Free web edition (ToC)
Buy the Kindle editionHoyle's collaborator William Alfred Fowler received the Nobel prize in 1983, but Hoyle's fundamental contributions - later acknowledged by Fowler - were overlooked by the Nobel committee. That has been attributed to Hoyle's brash personality and penchant for politically incorrect statements, including - I guess - daring to suggest that the universe is controlled by a cosmic God.Hoyle first came to the God conclusion by reflecting on what would later be known as “Anthropic Principle” - the amazing coincidences and fine-tuning of the physical constants that appear to favor the emergence of carbon-based life. “Some supercalculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom,” he said [Hoyle 1981].