Robert Woodrow Wilson (born January 10, 1936) is an American astronomer, 1978 Nobel laureate in physics, who with Arno Allan Penzias discovered in 1964 the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The award purse was also shared with a third scientist, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, for unrelated work.
While working on a new type of antenna at Bell Labs in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, they found a source of noise in the atmosphere that they could not explain. After removing all potential sources of noise, including pigeon droppings on the antenna, the noise was finally identified as CMB, which served as important corroboration of the Big Bang theory.
Read more about Robert Woodrow Wilson: Life and Work
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“I believe very profoundly in an over-ruling Providence, and I do not fear that any real plans can be thrown off the track. It may not be intended that I shall be President—but that would not break my heart.”
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“Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.”
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