Blinded by Science

In 1930, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar traveled for three weeks from India to graduate school in England. While in route, Chandrasekhar, also known as Chandra, made the most of his time. In college Chandra learned about how the discoveries of Einstein and his contemporaries had begun to revolutionize our understanding of the universe. He observed that the life cycle of stars could be better understood by applying some of these new ideas to models of how stars evolve. While traveling to school by ship and train, Chandra began developing a hypothesis about how white dwarves form. When he reached Cambridge, the 19-year old had developed foundation of the theory that would change the field of astrophysics forever.

Famous colleagues

Arthur Stanley Eddington was a well respected scientist who had been at Cambridge for 20 years before Chandra arrived from India. Eddington proposed the theory that every star within the main sequence eventually evolves into a white dwarf. This proposition was not universally accepted. In fact, another renowned scientist at the time argued that main sequence stars would never become white dwarves.

Trouble looms

Chandra finished his PhD and stayed on at Cambridge as a faculty member. While he continued his research on the life cycle of stars, Eddington visited him daily, inquiring about his work. Chandra shared his discovery that some stars do develop into white dwarves, while others do not. He thought Eddington was satisfied with these results.

Conflict between colleagues Chandra looked forward to presenting his research at the Royal Astronomical Society in 1935. Two days prior to the meeting, Chandra saw the agenda. Eddington was scheduled to speak right after Chandra, on the same subject. Why hadn't Eddington mentioned this to him? The night before the meeting, Eddington approached Chandra and told him that he had requested Chandra be given extra time to make his presentation.

Discovery is discredited

At the meeting, Chandra explained his discovery that stars having a mass close to that of the Sun will become white dwarves, but that there is a limit of a certain mass. He explained that more massive stars will begin to collapse in on themselves. Today scientists recognize that he laid the foundation for the discovery of black holes. Sadly, Eddington followed Chandra's presentation with a harsh critique of the younger scientist's discoveries. No one in the room questioned Eddington's arguments.

Science was stalled by personality

Chandra was crushed. His work of the past five years was discredited in one day. Most of his colleagues respected Eddington too much to disagree with him. Although some of the leading scientists at the time privately agreed with Chandra's discovery, they were not willing to confront or question Eddington's authority.

Chandra's work would have transformed our understanding of stars in 1935. Instead, because of the conflict fueled by Eddington's ego, confusion about the life cycle of stars continued for decades to come.

Chandra's work was not fully credited until he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics nearly 50 years later.

Teacher's Edition for Feature Chandrasekhar

Purpose

Students will read an account of a major discovery that was made in the life cycle of stars, but was thwarted because of political reasons.

Background

The progress of science is not always straightforward, because the scientists involved are human, and prone to personal bias and pride. A promising young Indian astrophysicist, Chandrasekhar, made a major discovery about the life cycle of stars. His work was thoroughly discredited when his contemporary, Eddington, whose own theory was at stake, openly ridiculed Chandra's work. Scientists of the time refused to question Eddington because of his social status. As a result, Chandrasekhar's discovery was overlooked for over 30 years.

Teaching Strategies

• Ask students to consider the role of questioning in scientific progress. Ask them if discoveries can be made if scientists are required to agree all the time. Explain to the class that this feature recounts one example in which the course of science was stalled because scientists refused to question a well-respected scientist.

• Explain to students that Chandra proved mathematically that for massive stars, the force of gravity would cause them to collapse in on themselves. Tell students that Eddington was sure that all stars became white dwarves, because that is what made the most sense to him. Eddington intended to poke fun at Chandra when he declared, "The star has to go on radiating and radiating and contracting and contracting until, I suppose, it gets to a few km radius, when gravity becomes strong enough to hold in the radiation, and the star can at last find peace." Ask students to analyze this statement, and identify what Eddington very nearly discovered. Answer: Eddington came close to realizing that black holes were the logical extension of Chandra's calculations.