Legendary physicist Freeman Dyson dies at 96
NEW DELHI: Renowned physicist, scholar and one of the most influential thinkers of our times, Freeman Dyson, has passed away at the age of 96, according to reports.
The British-born American scientist, who was born on December 15, 1923, in Crowthorne, UK, reportedly died on Friday at a hospital near Princeton, New Jersey from complications following a fall.
Dyson is famous for several out-of-the-box concepts that often show up in science fiction, futuristic movies and video games. Some of his concepts are hugely popular, like the “Dyson tree”, which is a hypothetical genetically-engineered plant capable of growing in a comet.
He is also known for the “Dyson sphere”, a thought experiment that explores how a space-faring civilisation would meet its energy needs with a hypothetical megastructure that encompasses a star and absorbs its power. The concept was used in a television episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Dyson won several scientific awards, but never got the
Nobel Prize.in 2000, he bagged the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.
In these times of climate crisis awareness, Dyson’s maverick stance on climate change has relevance. He believed global warming is caused by increased CO2 through burning fossil fuels, but some of the effects are favourable and not taken into account, such as increased agricultural yield.
Dyson was a member of a team of scientists that backed the US government’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.