Sometimes scientific discoveries are made in world-class laboratories, when brilliant scientists come together to prove a wonderful idea true with fresh experiments. And sometimes, the secrets of the universe are hidden under a pile of pigeon poop.
And so it happened that the first observation of the crackle of nascent energy left over from the Big Bang was not some long-sought holy grail of science. Instead, it was an annoying bit of static mistaken for bird droppings. Such is the lofty origin of the Cosmic Microwave Background energy, the Big Bang’s still-reverberating echo.
In the middle of the 20th century, two theories competed to explain the creation of the universe. In one corner, advocates of the Steady State Theory argued that the universe was eternal, looking the same at all times and in all places, as long as you zoomed out far enough.
But the stronger case was for the ...
