Memorial Page for Thomas Gold

Thomas Gold (born 22 May 1920 in Vienna; died 22 June 2004 in Ithaca, New York) was an Austrian-British-American astrophysicist and scientist with an unusually wide field of work. He wrote on hearing physiology, cosmology, pulsars, lunar science, geophysics and the origins of oil and natural gas.

Vienna, Cambridge and war

Gold was born in Vienna, received part of his education in Switzerland and went to Britain shortly before the Second World War. At Cambridge he studied at Trinity College. As a student from Austria he was detained in 1940 during the British internment of so-called enemy aliens. There he met Hermann Bondi. Later Gold worked on radar projects for the British Admiralty.

From physics to cosmology

After the war Gold remained in Britain and worked in Cambridge. Together with Fred Hoyle and Hermann Bondi he developed the steady-state theory of the universe, which for a time was a serious alternative to Big Bang cosmology and was later pushed aside by observations. For Gold, the value of a theory also lay in the sharpness with which it posed questions to observations and assumptions.

Breadth and dissent

Gold repeatedly moved between fields. He published early work on the function of the inner ear and later worked on magnetospheres, pulsars and the surface of the Moon. Before the Apollo missions he warned about fine lunar dust; the exact danger was controversial, but his attention to the physical properties of the lunar surface shaped the debate. He often looked for problems where established explanations seemed too comfortable.

Cornell

After positions in Britain and at Harvard, Gold came to Cornell University in the late 1950s. There he became professor of astronomy, helped build the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research and shaped the university as a place for open scientific debate. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and received honours including the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Controversial later ideas

Gold's claim that oil and natural gas had deep, non-biological origins and were connected with a subterranean biosphere remained especially controversial. Many geologists rejected the interpretation. This part of his work shows a recurring pattern in his career: Gold sought large, risky explanations and accepted disagreement as part of scientific argument.

Farewell

Thomas Gold died in Ithaca on 22 June 2004 after heart disease. He was 84 years old. His memory is linked with a way of doing science that crossed disciplinary borders, tested strong claims and remained productive even when an idea was later not confirmed or only partly sustained.