John Wheeler

John Archibald Wheeler was a theoretical physicist who famously popularized the scientific terms "black hole" and "wormhole." He also coined the phrase "It from bit," which describes the idea that all physical objects are ultimately composed of information. His terminology became foundational to modern quantum gravity and relativity.

Wheeler popularized the term "black hole" during a 1967 conference at the Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York. The phrase quickly replaced the clunky, previously used term "completely collapsed gravitational object." The catchy name helped bring the concept of these massive dying stars into mainstream scientific discussion.

Before his work on black holes, Wheeler collaborated with physics legend Niels Bohr in the late 1930s to explain the mechanism of nuclear fission. They developed the "liquid drop model" of the atomic nucleus, which successfully explained how uranium atoms split when bombarded by neutrons. Their crucial theoretical work laid the foundation for the Manhattan Project.

Wheeler spent the vast majority of his prestigious academic career teaching at Princeton University in New Jersey. During his time there, he mentored numerous legendary future physicists, most notably Richard Feynman. He also briefly worked on the hydrogen bomb at Los Alamos National Laboratory during the Cold War.