Julio A Gonzalo

'Cosmic Paradoxes' was an outcome of a Conference-Summer Course on 'Astrophysical Cosmology: Frontier Questions' held at El Escorial, Madrid, on August 16-19, 1993. The Scientific Directors were John C Mather, Director of NASA's COBE (Cosmic Background Radiation Explorer), and Jose M Torroja, Secretary of the Spanish Academy of Sciences. Julio A Gonzalo, UAM, was in charge of coordinating the event. The first speaker was Ralph A Alpher, one of the pioneers who predicted very early the CBR (Cosmic Background Radiation). The CBR was observed by A Penzias and R Wilson, Bell Telephone Labs, in 1965. Thereafter it was measured with unprecedented precision by the COBE in 1989, characterizing the Planck spectral distribution of the CBR (J C Mather) and detecting its minute anisotropies (G Smoot). In 2003 the WMAP, NASA's satellite successor of the COBE, confirmed COBE's results, and gave an excellent quantitative estimate of the 'age' of the universe as 13.7 ± 0.2 Gyrs, in support of the Big Bang theory of cosmic origins.In the Third Edition of this book, almost coincident with the launch reports of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), includes recent work discussing evidence in favor of an open finite universe. A further discussion of the Heisenberg-Lemaitre time (Appendix D) takes into consideration that the cosmic expansion velocity at very early times is ?(yHL)»c and reviews in more detail the thermal history of the universe.

'Cosmic Paradoxes' was an outcome of a Conference-Summer Course on 'Astrophysical Cosmology: Frontier Questions' held at El Escorial, Madrid, on August 16-19, 1993. The Scientific Directors were John C Mather, Director of NASA's COBE (Cosmic Background Radiation Explorer), and Jose M Torroja, Secretary of the Spanish Academy of Sciences. Julio A Gonzalo, UAM, was in charge of coordinating the event. The first speaker was Ralph A Alpher, one of the pioneers who predicted very early the CBR (Cosmic Background Radiation). The CBR was observed by A Penzias and R Wilson, Bell Telephone Labs, in 1965. Thereafter it was measured with unprecedented precision by the COBE in 1989, characterizing the Planck spectral distribution of the CBR (J C Mather) and detecting its minute anisotropies (G Smoot). In 2003 the WMAP, NASA's satellite successor of the COBE, confirmed COBE's results, and gave an excellent quantitative estimate of the 'age' of the universe as 13.7 ± 0.2 Gyrs, in support of the Big Bang theory of cosmic origins.In the Third Edition of this book, almost coincident with the launch reports of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), includes recent work discussing evidence in favor of an open finite universe. A further discussion of the Heisenberg-Lemaitre time (Appendix D) takes into consideration that the cosmic expansion velocity at very early times is ?(yHL)»c and reviews in more detail the thermal history of the universe.

A lo largo del s. XX recibieron la mayor Condecoraci n Pontificia (la Suprema orden de Cristo) los siguientes Jefes de Estado: F. Franco, L. Einaudi, R. Coty, Ch. de Gaulle, el Rey Balduino, E. de Valera, A. Segni y K. Adenauer... Si en 1939 hubiera ganado la guerra el Frente Popular Marxista-Leninista, el n mero de victimas mortales en Espa a hubiera sido un 10% de la poblaci n, es decir, entre 2.000.000 y 3.000.000, en lugar de los 10.000 habidos tras la victoria de la Espa a Nacional por penas de muerte, tras sentencias en juicios sumar simos legales (justos o injustos). As se deduce de "Le livre noir du Communisme: Crimes, terreur, r pression", Par s, 1997 ( traducido a todos los idiomas importantes). Por supuesto, esto no lo dice la impresentable "Ley de Memoria Hist rica"; dice exactamente todo lo contrario.

Hasta hace poco el hombre europeo era totalmente ajeno a una cosmovisi n c clica del universo, como las cosmovisiones milenarias de la India y la China. Ambas cosmovisiones, como las de algunos ep gonos del ate smo contempor neo, est n dominadas por la idea de "eternos retornos" c smicos, una idea que es af n a un pante smo fatalista y opuesta profundamente a la cosmovisi n cristiana de un universo bueno creado por un Dios inteligente, bueno y todopoderoso. En el presente libro se analizan, brevemente con sencillez, las opiniones personales de los principales promotores del ate smo contempor neo y de algunos de sus exponentes m s recientes (Nietzsche, Freud, Russell, Sartre) y se muestra c mo la ciencia contempor nea no es incompatible en absoluto con una visi n netamente cat lica del hombre y del cosmos. El autor, Catedr tico de F sica en la Universidad Aut noma de Madrid, ha impartido cursos y ha realizado investigaci n en F sica de la Materia Condensada en universidades espa olas (Salamanca, Barcelona, Madrid) y americanas (Mayag ez, Rio Piedras P.R.) y en centros de investigaci n de relieve internacional (Brookhaven National Laboratory, N.Y.). Es autor de varios libros, entre ellos: "Pioneros de la Ciencia" (Palabra, 2000) y "Los ltimos trece mil millones de a os..." (UAM, 2002).

Elementary Considerations on some long standing and contemporary mathematical physical-statistical and global-statistical problems are put toguether. Some of these considerations have been considered tantamount to almost rigorous proofs by physicist friends but not so by rigorous theoreticians and mathematicians. Readers may take a look at them and make their choice.

Negar las realidades sobrenaturales, profec as, milagros, etc., es equivalente a aceptar una cosmovisi n pante sta del universo en la que ni el hombre ni Dios son libres. Ser a un Dios ajeno e indiferente al mundo, a la vida, a los hombres. Carecer a de L gica. Ser a un Dios sin sentido.

Stephen Hawking, present occupant of the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge University, is today one of the best known theoretical cosmologists in the world. His important contributions, in collaboration with Roger Penrose, to the physics of black holes are well known, but this does not make comparable to those of Albert Einstein, as some times is affirmed in the mainstream media. In this book, Hawking s work as presented at the Vatican Study Week on Astrophysical Cosmology (1981), his bestseller "A Brief History of Time" (1988), his lecture on "G del and the end of physics" (2002), and "The Grand Design"(2010) are briefly examined. In them many philosophical questions are raised but no rigorous answers are provided. In the second half of the book, chapters on the origin of science in the Christian West, the post-Renaissance scientific revolution, the true pioneers of modern physics put contemporary cosmology in a proper perspective. The authors conclude that contemporary observational data are compatible with a finite, open and contingent universe, rather than with "everything coming out of nothing". This book puts in a proper historical perspective, contrary to Hawking's, that the universe is intelligible as attested by the monumental fact of modern science, and, therefore, that it is contingent, and therefore created. Very often, contemporary theoretical cosmologists ignore the crucial contributions made in Medieval Europe to the birth of modern physics. This book intends to bridge the gap in accessible language for the non specialist.

Una de las formas m s did cticas de exponer la historia consiste en examinar a los protagonistas de ella mediante semblanzas adecuadas, es decir exponiendo los datos m s elementales de sus biograf as y analizar estas en funci n de su actuaci n real en los sucesos. La actuaci n se compone de palabras y de hechos, si bien en la historia pol tica las palabras son tambi n hechos significativos, porque repercuten en la sociedad y tienen siempre consecuencias pr cticas, del tipo que sean.

Beginning with the famous Olber's paradox, paradoxes such as the missing mass, dark energy, baryon to photon ratio and cosmic zero-point energy are examined in detail. The Heisenberg-Lemaitre's units, based on the total enormous but finite mass of the Universe, are introduced and rigorous solutions of Einstein's cosmological equations for an open Universe with cosmological constant are obtained. Energy conservation after the Big Bang is consistently required.This book discusses such paradoxes in depth with physical and logical content and historical perspective, and has not too technical content in order to serve a wide audience. In the second edition, the content is updated and new sections are added.

Beginning with the famous Olber's paradox, paradoxes such as the missing mass, dark energy, baryon to photon ratio and cosmic zero-point energy are examined in detail. The Heisenberg-Lemaitre's units, based on the total enormous but finite mass of the Universe, are introduced and rigorous solutions of Einstein's cosmological equations for an open Universe with cosmological constant are obtained. Energy conservation after the Big Bang is consistently required.This book discusses such paradoxes in depth with physical and logical content and historical perspective, and has not too technical content in order to serve a wide audience. In the second edition, the content is updated and new sections are added.

World Population: Past, Present, & Future uses a multidisciplinary approach to investigate in depth on important aspects of the evolution of world population not well addressed previously. The authors from the Universidad Autonoma, Madrid (Spain), professors Julio A Gonzalo, Manuel Alfonseca, and Félix-Fernando Muñoz, point out that the recent pronounced growth in world population (accompanied by an even more pronounced growth in agricultural production) was due mainly to the increase of life expectancy and not to the (inexistent) growth in fertility rate. Using a 'rate equations' approach for the first time, they describe population trends and forecast the possibility of steps up (or down) in population rather than the exponential growth predicted by UN demographers around 1985 and thereafter. This book provides a new perspective that our planet is not overpopulated and could, in fact, house a considerably larger population.

Despu s de pasar revista a los cambios dr sticos habidos desde el Concilio Vaticano Segundo, consideraremos algunas de las m s controvertidas opiniones del Papa Francisco. Podemos suponer con un alt simo grado de probabilidad que Francisco es una bell sima persona y que sus intenciones son excelentes. A algunos, aunque no a todos, puede que les gusten mucho esas opiniones. Sin embargo, si tales opiniones son infundadas puede que resulten en mayor confusi n y divisi n dentro de la Iglesia. Todas las actitudes caritativas, incluso las del Papa, deben estar fundamentadas en la verdad. Y como dec a Bossuet hace ya muchos a os: "La verdad es una. El error es m ltiple."

The aim of this book is to analyze the all important implications of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle for a finite universe with very large mass-energy content such as ours. The earlier and main contributors to the formulation of Quantum Mechanics are briefly reviewed regarding the formulation of Heisenberg's Principle. After discussing “indeterminacy” versus ”uncertainty”, the universal constants of physics are reviewed and Planck's units are given. Next, a novel set of units, Heisenberg-Lemaitre units, are defined in terms of the large finite mass of the universe. With the help of Heisenberg's principle, the time evolution of the finite zero-point energy for the universe is investigated quantitatively. Next, taking advantage of the rigorous solutions of Einstein's cosmological equation for a flat, open and mixed universe of finite mass, the most recent and accurate data on the “age” (to) and the expansion rate (Ho) of the universe and their implications are reconsidered.

La Segunda Rep blica, no s lo laica, sino furibundamente anticat loca, nos llev a la Guerra Civil. Afortunadamente para todos, la media Espa a que se sublev y venci , opt por la leg tima defensa, en lugar de poner la otra mejilla. El refer ndum de 1966 parec a asegurar una transici n ordenada. No fue as . El Estado de las Autonom as no funciona, el nuevo rey lo va a tener dif cil. D mosle un margen de confianza.