An interview with Professor John Beckel, winner of the Dan David Prize * Already 40 years ago, Professor John Beckel presented his ideas about the solar system, but the scientific world did not accept them. Today he is considered the most important astrophysicist in the world
By: Haim Handwerker, Haaretz, New York
Prof. John Beckel from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton says that the general public does not have to know anything about the sun. You can live well even without knowing how it works. And this is an interesting announcement from the mouth of a man who devoted a large part of his life to the study of what is happening on the planet, without which humanity would not exist.
On May 18, Beckel, 68, will be awarded the Dan David Prize in the field of the Future Prize, given this year in the field of cosmology and astronomy at Tel Aviv University. He will get a million dollars. This is the second year that the Dan David Prize has been awarded, and last year it was won by, among others, Prof. Sidney Brenner and Prof. John Selston who recently received the Nobel Prize.
"According to the expert committee that decided to award him the prize, Beckel is the most important astrophysicist in the world today," says Prof. Irad Malkin, director of the Dan David Prize and himself a professor of ancient history. "I sat in three meetings of experts in the field and there is no doubt that this is a person of stature. Beckel presented his ideas 40 years ago, but the scientific world did not accept them. Later it turned out that he was right, and if they had listened to him, it would have been possible to make much more progress in research in the field."
Over the years, Beckel made a decisive contribution to the understanding of what happens in the sun. According to him, the source of the sun's energy is in its center; The hydrogen there is burned and turned into helium. "This is roughly what happens when a nuclear bomb explodes. In this case, the result of the process is more positive."
The great progress in the study of the sun took place in the last 40 years. "An important part of my work," says Beckel, "was to make sure that the source of the sun's energy is indeed the burning of hydrogen at its center. In 1964 I worked with Raymond Davis. I wrote the theory and he performed the experiment underground in a gold mine. The goal was to absorb the neutrinos, particles that are created in nuclear reactions at the center of the sun. These are unique particles, almost massless, moving at almost the speed of light from the center of the Sun. Every second, about 1,000 billion neutrinos will pass through an area of a square centimeter. Thus it takes them eight minutes, the speed of light, to reach the Earth from the Sun. The neutrinos do not interact with matter and therefore they can work through objects, including the human body. Although they are not responsible for transferring the energy to the earth, they allow, for example, to study what is happening on other planets.
The experiment that Davis performed created a problem: Davis only measured a third of the neutrinos that Beck had predicted in his theory. "It was a mystery we tried to deal with for 30 years. Some claimed that my calculation was incorrect. Others argued that Davis was not telling the truth. Some said that what is written in the physics books is not true and something is missing in the fundamental theory of physics."
The neutrino mystery was only solved in 2001, when new experiments proved that Beckel's calculations were correct and it became clear that some neutrinos change their nature on the way from the center of the sun to the earth. Why? For no reason, Beckel says (although it is also possible that the electrons in the sun also have an effect in this matter). This discovery was a scientific surprise. "These experiments taught us that we need to correct the accepted model in physics and change the textbooks accordingly."
Bacel has received great recognition in recent years. He has not already received a medal at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and participated in an appreciation evening on behalf of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. According to other scientists, he was also nominated for the Nobel Prize, but did not receive it. Davis and the Japanese Mastoshi Koshiba accepted it at the end of 2002. Beckel had the theory; Davis and Koshiba performed the actual experiments. In the scientific community, some claim that Beck should have received the award, and some say that he is still a Nobel candidate."
He was born in Louisiana and during high school he was interested in tennis. "I grew up in a non-conservative family. We went to a reform synagogue and I barely knew two words of Hebrew when I graduated from high school. At university I studied philosophy with the intention of becoming a Reform rabbi, but I quickly realized that I was built for research and not for rabbinate. I was enthusiastic about the idea that there is an explanation for the question of how the rainbow is formed, how the radio waves work and how they reach so far."
Beckel is an avid Israel lover. He often visits Israel and is known in the academic community in Israel. He met his wife Neta, an Israeli, astrophysicist, on his first visit to Israel 37 years ago. She holds the title of professor and serves as the chair of the Department of Astronomy Studies in the Department of Astrophysics at Princeton University. She specializes in cosmology, and among other things, tries to understand how the galaxies were formed. The couple has three children.
What is the age of the sun?
"50 years ago researchers came to the conclusion that the age of the sun is five billion years. Among the proofs of this - today you can find remains of animals that lived on earth a billion years ago. We are discovering stones in the solar system that are 4.5-4 billion years old."
How long will the sun continue to exist?
"According to a reliable calculation, the sun will exist for another five billion years. Now it is stable, but when the hydrogen in its center begins to decay it will spread. The diameter of the sun will increase so much that it will reach the earth and burn it. Following the expansion of the sun, the condition of the earth will worsen, and within three billion years it will no longer be possible to support life on it."
Beckel played an important role in the research of the Hubble Space Telescope and its construction, in the 30 years of the project. However, in the scientific world, not only the scientific side of his work is remembered. During the tenure of President Richard Nixon, a drama unfolded behind the scenes. Due to budgetary limitations, the administration decided in coordination with NASA to give up the space telescope project. Even before the decision was announced, the matter was leaked to Beckel, who decided, together with Lyman Spitzer, a well-known professor in the field of astrophysics, to bypass the president and request funding for the project from Congress. The administration and NASA did not like what he did, but he did not give up and together with his friend managed to convince Congress of the need to promote the project. A year later, the government already budgeted the necessary sums for the space telescope.
Looking back, what is the biggest achievement of the Hubble telescope?
"The telescope basically changed the way of working in the field of astronomy. Until it was sent, astronomers worked with different methods on the light of galaxies, X-rays, radio radiation, infrared. Today every astronomer knows that in order to complete his understanding he needs to use what Hubble has to offer.
"But the great achievement is that the telescope found a large, heavy black hole in the centers of galaxies. However, we must not forget that grief contributes in many areas, and it is possible that only in a hundred years we will know that discoveries made through it led to much more dramatic revelations."
In the summer, a committee will meet, with Bakl at its head, to check how many years the space telescope will continue to work. "The question is, if we can send a space shuttle to repair parts and replace and upgrade other parts. According to the plan, the space telescope will continue to work until 2010 but things may change. The fear is that at some point a malfunction will occur and a substantial repair will be required."
Is there life outside the earth?
"I am almost certain that it is, although there is no experimental proof of this. We live on a planet in an intermediate solar system; There are another 100 billion such sets in our galaxy, and the universe has 100 billion galaxies like ours. Given this huge number, it is unlikely that it is the only planet with life on it. As for the question, if there is life in our solar system apart from Earth, I have no solid opinion."
What kind of life are you talking about?
"If there is life in other star systems it is likely that they are much more developed than ours. Humans on Earth are part of a young civilization. We learned to write and read only a few thousand years ago; We've been talking on the phone for less than a century. This is a relatively short period of time compared to the age of stars and planets in the universe. There is a chance that we will develop much more in a few thousand years, that is of course if we do not destroy ourselves on Earth.
"Dick Feynman, a great and prolific physicist, was once asked about life on other planets - whether it is worth investing money in programs to decipher this mystery. 'If it were up to me,' he replied, 'I would say yes. But eventually life on other planets will be discovered by chance and not because of a deliberate plan. Most of the important discoveries in science were made by chance.''
Is there a limit to the universe?
"There is indeed a limit to the universe, but it cannot be seen now. Most physicists believe that there is something beyond this limit. We don't know what exactly is happening there."
What subject in physics interests you the most today?
"The material that most of the universe is made of is still a mystery. We know what material humans and the earth are made of, but this is only a small fraction of the material in the universe. Most of the matter in the universe is made up of something else. In the meantime it is referred to as the 'invisible substance'. It is actually the basic material from which the entire universe is built."
What do you think about the level of research and studies in Israel?
"Israel's main asset is the brain. Its power is to give young and non-young people the ability to dream and work in new fields and build new ideas. In Israeli universities, the level of theoretical physics, biology and computer theory is high. The best people in these fields are at the level of the best people in the whole world. That is why I am disappointed by the meager support that higher education in Israel receives.
"But what really bothers me is the level in high schools. This is the foundation of Israel's future and it seems to me that it is not taken seriously. Whoever thinks about the long term in Israel, including the security of the state, must think about strengthening the teaching of science in high schools."
