Dr. Hoyle solved the problem: he pressed nuclear physicists to look for a special state of carbon-12, that was stable enough for the fusion of heavier elements to occur.

Then, working with three other scientists, Dr. Hoyle figured out how all the heavier elements could have been formed. Their historic paper was published in 1957 in Reviews of Modern Physics. In addition to Dr. Hoyle, the scientists were Dr. William A. Fowler, ofCalifornia Institute of Technology; Dr. Burbidge and Dr. Margaret Burbidge, his wife.

While the formation of the lighter elements, up to iron, could be explained by processes inside stars, extremely high temperatures and violent events were needed. The answer proposed by the four was the supernova, in which a giant star collapses to extreme density, then cataclysmically rebounds.

For this and his subsequent work in astrophysics, Dr. Fowler was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The other three were omitted, probably in part because the prize is rarely, if ever, awarded to more than two people.

Fred Hoyle's noncomformity manifested itself at an early age. Born in Bingley, Yorkshire, he found school boring, preferring to remain at home studying a textbook in elementary chemistry and doing chemistry experiments with equipment he found in his home. As recounted in his 1994 autobiography, ''Home Is Where the Wind Blows,'' in his parents' absence he enjoyed making gunpowder and creating explosions.

As school was compulsory, his absence led to difficulties with the local authorities. The family did not have the funds to send him to a private school, but he finally won scholarships, including one from the West Riding of Yorkshire, and started on the path that eventually led him to Cambridge.

As soon as he reached Cambridge he came under the tutelage of such top physicists as Rudolph Peierls, Eddington, P. A. M. Dirac and R. H. Fowler, whose calculations set the stage for the concept of black holes, stars whose collapse has yielded such density that the gravity prevents even light from escaping.