Obligatory Freeman Dyson Link

As a scientist with a blog, I am apparently contractually obligated to link to the New York Times Magazine profile of Freeman Dyson. If I don’t, they’ll take away my privileges as a scientist. (Of course, since those consist mostly of the right to review grant applications for the NSF, maybe it’d be worth the risk…)

I don’t mind linking to it, though, because it is a nice piece of work. The focus is mostly on Dyson’s (relatively) recent climate skepticism, because that’s a high-profile offbeat opinion to have these days, but it gives a nice sketch of his background and accomplishments.

One surprising thing about the article, though, was its failure to mention Fred Hoyle. They don’t have any deep scientific connections (that I know of), but if you asked me to name a British-born physicist best known for advocating unpopular or downright odd ideas, it’s a toss-up whether I’d name Dyson or Hoyle first. If I were assigned to write about one, it’s a sure bet that I’d end up mentioning the other.