Adams, Fred 1961–

(Fred C. Adams, Fred Chester Adams)

PERSONAL:

Born February 8, 1961, in Redwood City, CA; son of Richard D. and Esther Adams; divorced; children: Douglas Q. Education: Iowa State University, B.S., 1983; University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D., 1988.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Physics, University of Michigan, 3251 Randall Lab, 450 Church St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109; fax: 734-936-1817. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, postdoctoral fellow at Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 1988-91; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, assistant professor, 1991-96, associate professor, 1996-2001, professor of physics, 2001—, professor of astronomy, 2000—. Guest speaker at other institutions, including Rutgers University, Dartmouth College, California Institute of Technology, McMaster University, University of Arizona, and University of Florida; workshop organizer; frequent conference participant around the world. Member of editorial board, Serbian Astronomical Journal, 2002—.

MEMBER:

International Astronomical Union, American Mathematics Society, American Astronomical Society, Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Robert J. Trumpler Award, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1991, for outstanding doctoral thesis in research considered unusually important to astronomy; Helen B. Warner Prize, American Astronomical Society, 1996, for significant contribution to observational or theoretical astronomy in the previous five years; grants from National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Foundational Questions Institute, Spitzer Space Telescope Sycle 3, National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, and National Science Foundation.

WRITINGS:

(With Greg Laughlin) The Five Ages of the Universe: Inside the Physics of Eternity, Free Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Origins of Existence: How Life Emerged in the Universe, Free Press (New York, NY), 2002, paperback edition published as Our Living Multiverse: A Book of Genesis in 0-7 Chapters, Pi Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor of articles and reviews to scientific journals, including Sky and Telescope, Astrophysical Journal, Nuclear Physics, Physical Review, Space Science Reviews, Astrophysics and Space Science, Icarus, International Journal of Modern Physics, Astrobiology, and Review of Modern Physics.

Adams' books have been translated into Polish, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Japanese, Finnish, Serbian, and Russian.

SIDELIGHTS:

Fred Adams combines intellect and imagination to unveil how the universe may have unfolded and how it might continue to unfold. Adams' first work, The Five Ages of the Universe: Inside the Physics of Eternity, offers an astrophysical look at the universe from its origins to its demise. In order to properly "view" this span, Adams and coauthor Greg Laughlin invent a new measurement of time called the "cosmological decade." The end phase comes in the year 10 to the 100th power: 10 followed by 100 zeros. The time frame is inconceivably long, yet Adams attempts to make it conceivable. He divides the life of the universe into five sections: the Primordial Era (the first 100,000 years when radiation was the primary force); the Stelliferous Era (which we are now experiencing, dominated by stars and galaxies); the Degenerate Era (marked by lack of hydrogen and star death); the Black Hole Era (dominated by, of course, black holes); and the Dark Era (the final period during which there are no stellar objects of any kind).

The unusual subject matter made it appealing to the Cable News Network program Headline News, George Will's weekly column, and even Matt Groening's "Life in Hell" cartoon, all while the work was still in the form of a scholarly paper. The book version proved to be equally scholarly, according to some critics. In addition, according to New York Times Book Review contributor Dick Teresi, the authors lack credibility, "extrapolating from the unfalsifiable to the unknowable." New Scientist contributor Marcus Chown noted that "a Ph.D. is needed to understand many of the explanations." Others felt differently, however. As Gilbert Taylor wrote in Booklist: "The authors effectively impress on interested nonscientists the implications of the universe's colossal time dimension. A stellar piece of science popularization."

Adams' next exploration looks at the emergence of life in the Stelliferous Era. In Origins of Existence: How Life Emerged in the Universe, he suggests that life emerged on Earth, perhaps by accident, deep beneath the surface of the planet. Life germinated in the heat of the subterranean furnace, not from the soupy primordial pond preferred by the life scientists of the previous century. Then, he extrapolates, if life emerged from microbes deep within the earth, it might be equally possible for the seeds of life to be hidden within other bodies of the universe, or even other universes not subject to the laws of physics as we know them. There they await the cataclysmic moment of opportunity that could propel them into complex life forms suited to their own unique habitat. A Publishers Weekly contributor called Origins of Existence "an engaging grand tour of galactic space-time." In American Scientist, contributor Antonio Lazcano expressed reservations about the indisputable certainty of Adams' premise, but did find "much to admire" in a work that he described as "engaging, well-written" and full of "considerable information on fundamental concepts of modern physics."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, September-October, 2003, Antonio Lazcano, review of Origins of Existence: How Life Emerged in the Universe, p. 452.

Astronomy, September, 1999, review of The Five Ages of the Universe: Inside the Physics of Eternity, p. 100.

Booklist, April 15, 1999, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Five Ages of the Universe, p. 1494; December 1, 1999, Donna Seaman, review of The Five Ages of the Universe, p. 676.

Discover, September, 1999, Jeffrey Winters, review of The Five Ages of the Universe, p. 95.

Independent (London, England), August 17, 1999, review of The Five Ages of the Universe.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2002, review of Origins of Existence, p. 1085.

Library Journal, April 15, 1999, James Olson, review of The Five Ages of the Universe, p. 140.

New Scientist, August 21, 1999, Marcus Chown, "Time after Time."

New York Times Book Review, August 8, 1999, Dick Teresi, "The First Squillion Years."

Publishers Weekly, May 24, 1999, review of The Five Ages of the Universe, p. 55; September 16, 2002, review of Origins of Existence, p. 62.

Science Teacher, October, 2000, Charles James, review of The Five Ages of the Universe, p. 90.