In all my years of following Astronomy for 30 years, Dr. Burbidge’s name never came up despite his involvement in the theory about the universe starting out with simpler elements (hydrogen, helium and lithium) and through explosions (supernovas, gamma-ray bursts, etc), the more complex atoms developed, namely carbon and oxygen. Dr. Plait even stated this in his recent book Death from the Skies yet didn’t mention Burbidge either.
Ironically, Burbidge was a skeptic regarding the Big Bang Theory, the generally accepted model/theory on the universe’s creation I first learned in seventh grade and through Carl Sagan’s Cosmos (currently watching again through Netflix). He was a proponent of Hoyle’s Steady State Theory which says the universe is eternal with local big bangs happening every 20 billion years. This seems to contradict his simple-to-complex contribution I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I only have a rudimentary understanding of Physics but I have my doubts in Steady State thanks to Entropy being real and the last time I checked, current evidence states the universe my only be 12 billion years old courtesy of Hubble and Hawking.
Despite Burbidge’s disagreement with the majority on Cosmology, he continued to be a respected Scientist and contributed to expanding our understanding of the Universe. Meanwhile, I think his defense of Steady State will solve the personal dilemma I have with Entropy being completely ignored in D&D (Dark Sun being the exception).