Paul C. W. Davies
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Paul Charles William Davies (born 22 April 1946) is an English physicist, writer and broadcaster, a professor in
Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
and Director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. He is affiliated with the Institute for Quantum Studies in Chapman University in California. He previously held academic appointments in the University of Cambridge, University College London, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, University of Adelaide and
Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...
. His research interests are in the fields of cosmology,
quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and ...
, and
astrobiology Astrobiology, and the related field of exobiology, is an interdisciplinary scientific field that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology is the multidisciplinary field that investig ...
. In 2005, he took up the chair of the SETI: Post-Detection Science and Technology Taskgroup of the International Academy of Astronautics. Davies serves on the Advisory Council of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence).


Education

Born on 22 April 1946, Davies was brought up in
Finchley Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. Finchley is on high ground, north of Charing Cross. Nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, Mill Hill and H ...
, London. He attended Woodhouse Grammar School and studied physics at University College London, gaining a Bachelor of Science degree with first-class honours in 1967. In 1970, he completed his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
under the supervision of Michael J. Seaton and
Sigurd Zienau Sigurd Zienau (1921–1976) was a physicist notable for the theory of the polaron. Education His undergraduate studies were in mathematics at Birkbeck College. His further studies in physics were very much in the 'old school' European style at t ...
at University College London. He carried out postdoctoral research under Fred Hoyle in the University of Cambridge.


Scientific research

Davies' research interests are theoretical physics, cosmology and
astrobiology Astrobiology, and the related field of exobiology, is an interdisciplinary scientific field that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology is the multidisciplinary field that investig ...
; his research has been mainly in the area of quantum field theory in curved spacetime. His notable contributions are the so-called Fulling–Davies–Unruh effect, according to which an observer accelerating through empty space will be subject to a bath of induced thermal radiation, and the Bunch–Davies vacuum state, often used as the basis for explaining the fluctuations in the cosmic background radiation left over from the
Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
. A paper co-authored with Stephen Fulling and
William Unruh William George "Bill" Unruh (; born August 28, 1945) is a Canadian physicist at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver who described the hypothetical Unruh effect in 1976. Early life and education Unruh was born into a Mennonite family i ...
was the first to suggest that
black holes A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can def ...
evaporating via the Hawking effect lose mass as a result of a flux of negative energy streaming into the hole from the surrounding space. Davies has had a longstanding association with the problem of
time's arrow Time's Arrow may refer to: * "Time's Arrow" (short story), a 1950 short story by Arthur C. Clarke * ''Time's Arrow'' (novel), a 1991 novel by Martin Amis * "Time's Arrow" (''Star Trek: The Next Generation''), a 1992 two-part episode of ''Star Trek: ...
, and has also identified the mystery of ‘ dark energy’ as one of the most important issues facing fundamental science. Davies was also an early proponent of the theory that life on Earth may have come from Mars cocooned in rocks ejected by asteroid and comet impacts. He is also a propagator of scientific research and technology development in order to
prevent Prevention may refer to: Health and medicine * Preventive healthcare, measures to prevent diseases or injuries rather than curing them or treating their symptoms General safety * Crime prevention, the attempt to reduce deter crime and crimin ...
future
comet impacts An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have physical consequences and have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or ...
threatening the development or existence of humankind. He proposed that a one-way trip to Mars could be a viable option in the future. During his time in Australia he helped establish the Australian Centre for Astrobiology. Davies was a co-author with
Felisa Wolfe-Simon Felisa Wolfe-Simon is an American microbial geobiologist and biogeochemist. In 2010, Wolfe-Simon led a team that discovered GFAJ-1, an extremophile bacterium that they claimed was capable of substituting arsenic for a small percentage of its p ...
on the 2011 '' Science'' article "A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus". Reports refuting the most significant aspects of the original results were published in the same journal in 2012. Following the publication of the articles challenging the conclusions of the original ''Science'' article first describing GFAJ-1, the website Retraction Watch argued that the original article should be retracted because of misrepresentation of critical data. Davies is an outreach investigator at
Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
's Center for Convergence of Physical Science and Cancer Biology. This is part of a program set up by the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute to involve physicists in cancer research which has set up a network of 12 Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers. Davies has been criticized for promoting a hypothesis that cancer is an evolutionary atavism or throwback to single-celled life, a claim that has been described as biologically unfounded.


Awards

Davies' talent as a communicator of science has been recognized in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
by an
Advance Australia Award The Advance Australia Foundation (AAF) was established in 1980. The AAF recognised "individuals or groups who have made outstanding contributions to the growth and enhancement of Australia, the Australian people and the Australian way of life". I ...
and two Eureka Prizes, and in the UK by the 2001
Kelvin Medal The Institute of Physics awards numerous prizes to acknowledge contributions to physics research, education and applications. It also offers smaller specific subject-group prizes, such as for PhD thesis submissions. Bilateral awards * The Max B ...
and Prize by the Institute of Physics, and the 2002
Faraday Prize The Royal Society of London Michael Faraday Prize is awarded for "excellence in communicating science to UK audiences". Named after Michael Faraday, the medal itself is made of silver gilt, and is accompanied by a purse of £2500. Background ...
by The Royal Society. Davies received the Templeton Prize in 1995. Davies was made a member of the Order of Australia in the 2007 Queen's birthday honours list. The minor planet 6870 Pauldavies is named after him.


Media work

Davies writes and comments on scientific and philosophical issues. He made a documentary series for
BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
, and two Australian television series, ''The Big Questions'' and ''More Big Questions''. His BBC documentary ''The Cradle of Life'' featured the subject of his
Faraday Prize The Royal Society of London Michael Faraday Prize is awarded for "excellence in communicating science to UK audiences". Named after Michael Faraday, the medal itself is made of silver gilt, and is accompanied by a purse of £2500. Background ...
lecture. He writes regularly for newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has been guest on numerous radio and television programmes including the children's podcast programme '' Ask A Biologist''. A 2007 opinion piece "Taking Science on Faith" in '' The New York Times'', generated controversy over its exploration of the role of faith in scientific inquiry. Davies argued that the faith scientists have in the immutability of physical laws has origins in
Christian theology Christian theology is the theology of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theology, theologian ...
, and that the claim that science is "free of faith" is "manifestly bogus." The Edge Foundation presented a criticism of Davies' article written by Jerry Coyne, Nathan Myhrvold, Lawrence Krauss, Scott Atran, Sean Carroll, Jeremy Bernstein, PZ Myers, Lee Smolin, John Horgan, Alan Sokal and a response by Davies beginning ''I was dismayed at how many of my detractors completely misunderstood what I had written. Indeed, their responses bore the hallmarks of a superficial knee-jerk reaction to the sight of the words "science" and "faith" juxtaposed.'' While atheists
Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...
and Victor J. Stenger have criticised Davies' public stance on science and religion, others, including the John Templeton Foundation, have praised his work. Davies wrote an article in '' The Wall Street Journal'' describing the background to the December 2010 arsenic bacteria press conference and stating that he supported the finding of
Felisa Wolfe-Simon Felisa Wolfe-Simon is an American microbial geobiologist and biogeochemist. In 2010, Wolfe-Simon led a team that discovered GFAJ-1, an extremophile bacterium that they claimed was capable of substituting arsenic for a small percentage of its p ...
that arsenic can replace phosphorus because "I had the advantage of being unencumbered by knowledge. I dropped chemistry at the age of 16, and all I knew about arsenic came from
Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...
novels." He also made the statement, "Well, I would be astonished if this was the only arsenic-based organism on Earth and Felisa just happened to scrape it up from the bottom of Mono Lake on the first try, It's quite clear that it is the tip of an iceberg. I think it's a window into a whole new world of microbiology. And as a matter of fact, she already has 20 or so candidate other organisms that we're very anxious to take a look at. I think we're going to see a whole new domain of life here." It was later independently demonstrated that the organism's DNA contained no arsenic at all. Concerns have been raised about his responsibility as one of Wolfe-Simon's co-authors.


In popular culture

* The 1996 novel '' Naive, Super'', by Norwegian writer Erlend Loe (translated by Tor Ketil Solberg), refers to Davies frequently. * ''Numbers'' (season 5, episode 12) refers to Paul Davies' Cosmic Think Tank at Arizona State. * In '' Lawrence Leung's Unbelievable'' (season 1, episode 3), Leung interviews Paul Davies about alien abduction, and Davies discusses having experienced sleep paralysis. * ''
Through the Wormhole ''Through the Wormhole'' is an American science documentary television series narrated and hosted by American actor Morgan Freeman. It began airing on Science Channel in the United States on June 9, 2010. The series concluded its run on May 16 ...
'', season 3, episode 1 " Will We Survive First Contact?" * ''
Through the Wormhole ''Through the Wormhole'' is an American science documentary television series narrated and hosted by American actor Morgan Freeman. It began airing on Science Channel in the United States on June 9, 2010. The series concluded its run on May 16 ...
'', season 6 * The 2013 novel ''The Extinction Machine'', by American writer
Jonathan Maberry Jonathan Maberry (born May 18, 1958) is an American suspense author, anthology editor, comic book writer, magazine feature writer, playwright, content creator and writing teacher/lecturer. He was named one of the Today's Top Ten Horror Writers. ...
, refers to Paul Davies.


Works


Popular science books

*1974 ''The Physics of Time Asymmetry'', University of California Press, Berkeley, California, *1978 ''The Runaway Universe'', Penguin Books, *1979 ''Stardoom'', Harper Collins Publishers Ltd, *1979 ''The Forces of Nature'', Cambridge University Press, *1980 ''Other Worlds'', Touchstone/Simon and Schuster, *1980 "The Search for Gravity Waves", Cambridge University Press, *1981 ''The Edge of Infinity'', Penguin USA, *1982 ''The Accidental Universe'', Cambridge University Press, *1982 ''Quantum Fields in Curved Space'', (with N.D. Birrell), Cambridge University Press, *1983 '' God and the New Physics'', Simon & Schuster, *1984 ''Superforce'', Touchstone, *1986 ''The Ghost in the Atom'', Cambridge University Press, *1987 ''The Cosmic Blueprint'', Simon & Schuster, *1988 ''Superstrings: A Theory of Everything'', Cambridge University Press, *1989 ''The New Physics'', Cambridge University Press, *1991 ''The Matter Myth'', Simon & Schuster, *1992 ''
The Mind of God ''The Mind of God'' is a 1992 non-fiction book by Paul Davies. Subtitled ''The Scientific Basis for a Rational World'', it is a whirlwind tour and explanation of theories, both physical and metaphysical, regarding ultimate causes. Its title com ...
'', Simon & Schuster UK, *1994 ''The Last Three Minutes'', Basic Books, *1995 ''Are We Alone?'', Basic Books, *1995 '' About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution'', Penguin Books, Simon & Schuster, *1998 ''The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life.'' New York: Simon and Schuster. *2002 ''
How to Build a Time Machine ''How to Build a Time Machine'' by Paul Davies is a 2002 physics book that discusses the possibilities of time travel. It was published by Penguin Books. In this book, Davies discusses why time is relative, how this relates to time travel, and t ...
'', Penguin Books, *2003 ''The Origin of Life'', Penguin Books, *2007 ''The Goldilocks Enigma'', also under the title '' Cosmic Jackpot'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, *2008 ''
Quantum Aspects of Life ''Quantum Aspects of Life'', a book published in 2008 with a foreword by Roger Penrose, explores the open question of the role of quantum mechanics at molecular scales of relevance to biology. The book contains chapters written by various world-e ...
'' (eds. Derek Abbott, Paul C. W. Davies, and
Arun K. Pati Arun Kumar Pati is an Indian physicist notable for his research in quantum information and computation, the theory of geometric phases and its applications, as well as Foundations of quantum mechanics. He has made pioneering contributions in t ...
, with foreword by
Sir Roger Penrose Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fel ...
), Imperial College Press, *2010 ''
The Eerie Silence ''The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence'' is a 2010 popular science book by Paul Davies, chair of the SETI: Post-Detection Science and Technology Taskgroup of the International Academy of Astronautics. ''The Eerie Silence'' ...
'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, *2010 ''Information and the Nature of Reality: From Physics to Metaphysics'', Cambridge University Press, *2019 ''The Demon in the Machine'', Allen Lane, *2021 ''What's Eating The Universe? (And Other Cosmic Questions)'', Allen Lane,


Technical books

*1974 ''The Physics of Time Asymmetry'', University of California Press, Berkeley California, *1982 (with N. D. Birrell) ''Quantum Fields in Curved Space'', Series: Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics, Cambridge University Press. *1984 ''Quantum Mechanics'', (with David S. Betts), 2nd edition, CRC Press, 1994.


Essays and papers


Are We Alone in the Universe?
in '' The New York Times'', 18 November 2013.
Taking Science on Faith
in '' The New York Times'', 24 November 2007.
What Happened Before the Big Bang?
in ''God for the 21st Century'', Russell Stannard ed., Templeton Foundation Press, 2000, *


Footnotes


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Paul 1946 births 20th-century British male writers 20th-century British non-fiction writers 20th-century British philosophers 20th-century British physicists 20th-century British scientists 20th-century essayists 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British non-fiction writers 21st-century British philosophers 21st-century British physicists 21st-century British scientists 21st-century essayists Academics of Newcastle University Alumni of University College London Astrobiologists British cosmologists British deists British male essayists British male non-fiction writers British male writers British philosophers British science writers Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Living people Macquarie University faculty Members of the International Society for Science and Religion Members of the Order of Australia Metaphysics writers People from Finchley Philosophers of cosmology Philosophers of science Philosophers of technology Philosophers of time Philosophical cosmologists Philosophy writers Quantum physicists Science activists Science communicators Space advocates Templeton Prize laureates Theoretical physicists University of Adelaide faculty Writers about religion and science