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What is John Wheeler famous for?
John A. Wheeler, a visionary physicist and teacher who helped invent the theory of nuclear fission, gave black holes their name and argued about the nature of reality with Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, died Sunday morning at his home in Hightstown, N.J. He was 96.
Who said it from bit?
John Archibald Wheeler (July 9, 1911 – April 13, 2008) was an eminent American theoretical physicist. One of the later collaborators of Albert Einstein, he tried to achieve Einstein’s vision of a unified field theory. He is also known for having coined the terms black hole and wormhole and the phrase “it from bit”.
What is a participatory universe?
Wheeler’s hunch is that the universe is built like an enormous feedback loop, a loop in which we contribute to the ongoing creation of not just the present and the future but the past as well. …
Did John Wheeler retire?
Wheeler retired as professor emeritus in 1986.
Who made the term black hole?
Science writer Marcia Bartusiak traces the term “black hole” to physicist Robert H. Dicke, who in the early 1960s reportedly compared the phenomenon to the Black Hole of Calcutta, notorious as a prison where people entered but never left alive.
What keeps everything from happening at once?
Mark Twain said, “Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.”
Is the universe computational?
In the 1940s, computer pioneer Konrad Zuse began to speculate that the universe might be nothing but a giant computer continually executing formal rules to compute its own evolution. Lloyd also calculates that the visible universe has so far computed about 10122 operations on 1092 bits.
Did John Wheeler get a Nobel Prize?
His awards, including the Wolf Prize in physics, Bohr, Franklin, Einstein and Fermi prizes, were many and huge. But Wheeler never was awarded a Nobel. Many physicists believe that his pioneering work should have earned him a Nobel prize.