8:04 A.M., April 23, 1992, Ramada Renaissance Hotel- Techworld, Washington, D.C.: George Smoot, a tall, neatly bearded astrophysicist from the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, California, wearing a suit on this exceptional day, stands ready to present the long-awaited results of an experiment aboard the Cosmic Background Explorer, a satellite known to everyone by the acronym COBE. Tomorrow his research team’s discovery will be a feature story in hundreds of newscasts and newspapers, and George Smoot will temporarily become the most famous scientist in the world.
Right now Smoot isn’t worried about the press--he’s worried about the reception he’ll get from his fellow researchers. Several groups have arrived at the meeting to discuss their own COBE experiments, and Smoot isn’t sure their results will support the announcement he is about to make. Why then is he rushing to announce a major discovery that might not pan out? Cold fusion, after ...
