once a derisive term mocking the element origin idea (7 letters)?

Question

astronomy

Answer 1

Big Bang, 7 letters

Answer 2

NOT "Big Bang," nor even "big bang." (There's a draft of the broadcast text in the Hoyle archives --- "big bang" is not capitalized.)

Fred Hoyle used this term in a BBC radio lecture in 1949, to characterize the idea that the Universe was all created in one single "explosive" point in time. It later gained widespread currency when this and other lectures were published as "The Nature of the Universe" in 1950. So it was in an "origin of the Universe" context, NOT an "origin of the elements" context.

It is true that the problem of how the elements were created --- in the Big Bang and/or in stars and/or in what relative proportions --- became a much addressed problem in subsequent years; but there's no doubt that the initial context was to contrast the "explosive origin of the Universe" idea with Hoyle et al's own "Steady State Theory" (published just the year before).

By the way --- as I read it, it was a convenient and colourful phrase to get across the contrasting idea to the general public audience, and not intended to be as derisive as people have later said. If YOU were lecturing to a general audience, could you come up with any better and easily visualizable analogy that would convey the essence of it so economically?

Live long and prosper.

Answer 3

"Big Bang."

It was originally a term of derision. It is now fairly mainstream.

Answer 4

atomism