Talk:Dennis William Sciama

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Contents 1 Didn't introduce dark matter. 2 Introduced many universes? 3 Merge 4 Students beware

[edit] Didn't introduce dark matter.

I'm removing the claim that Sciama introduced the idea of dark matter. Fritz Zwicky inferred the existence of dark matter and apparently coined the term in 1933, when Sciama was 7 years old. See for instance this review article: [1]. I'm also a bit skeptical about the claim that Sciama introduced the idea of multiple universes; it's unclear exactly what idea is being ascribed to him there, but I'm leaving it for now. To whoever put that claim in the article, it would be great if you could find a source to cite for that (the original paper by Sciama if possible). It's really useful to have links to scientific papers of historical importance in Wikipedia. --Reuben 04:50, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Introduced many universes?

It doesn't look likely. Here's a biography of Sciama from the APS: [2]. As far as I can tell, Sciama favored a single eternal universe at least through 1959, when he published The Unity of the Universe. Everett's thesis introducing the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (not yet called that at the time) was 1957, so it doesn't seem very likely that Sciama proposed a similar idea first. Please understand that I'm not out to belittle Sciama - he has a very impressive biography, but I want to make sure the article attributes the right things to him. Wikipedia unfortunately tends to accumulate claims that about a dozen people invented or discovered any given thing. --Reuben 05:13, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

Hi, Reuben, looks like you might be right. Thanks for fact checking--- I was getting careless, yuk. This was only a rough draft while I await feedback from a former student of DWS. BTW, it seems that Brandon Carter's graduate date is not listed in the Mathematical Geneology project--- I hate to bother him AGAIN, so I am hoping someone knows it and fills it in. BTW, I am trying to obtain permission to use photos of R. P. Kerr, Dennis W. Sciama, and other figures for existing or future wikibiographies.

As for the provenance of the disputed claims, I found them in two short obituaries of Sciama which were in Italian, so I might have misunderstood something! If you are curious, you can Google for "Dennis Sciama" you will probably find the same articles. If not, and if it still matters, I can find them again for you.

Since you took the trouble to correct my goofs, I hope you might be interested in writing some biographies or at least in improving some more existing wikibiographies. I am trying to create (or get others to create) adequate wikibiographies of major contributors to relativity, especially contributors to the Golden Age of General Relativity (1960-1975). (Another article I kinda hope someone else will write, since I have my hands full with the GTR WikiProject draft.) See Contributors to general relativity for a list of something over 200 individuals, about a third of whom currently have biographies. I have probably written about a dozen stubs, including the Sciama article.---CH (talk) 07:18, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

Hi Hillman, it looks like you're doing really good work with the biographies. From the little bit I read, it does look like Sciama did significant work on dark matter and on multiple universes, so I hope we can fill in the details. There were a couple of mentions of a theory that tied together dark matter, neutrinos, and CMB, but was experimentally ruled out some time ago; it seems to have inspired a lot of experimental work. I'll see if I can find out more. I don't think I'll have much time to work on it, though. --Reuben 18:37, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Merge

I think that this is the same person as Denis Sciama. --David.Mestel 19:46, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, except there is nothing at that stub to merge which is not said better here. It should be speedied with a friendly note in the author's user page pointing him at this article. Not to mention the importance of spelling the subject's name correctly! ---CH 01:25, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Not to mention the author of this article getting the subject's name correct! - 20.138.246.89 14:44, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Students beware

I created the original version of this article and had been monitoring it, but I am leaving the WP and am now abandoning this article to its fate.

Just wanted to provide notice that I am only responsible (in part) for the last version I edited; see User:Hillman/Archive.

I emphatically do not vouch for anything you might see in more recent versions, although I hope for the best.

Good luck in your search for information, regardless!---CH 23:19, 30 June 2006 (UTC)