In memory of Arno Penzias, the Bell Labs researcher who explained the origins of the universe
This week the scientific community suffered an immeasurable loss. Renowned physicist, Nobel laureate and former Bell Labs Chief Scientist Arno Penzias passed away on Monday at the age of 90 due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
Arno’s contributions to physics fundamentally shaped our understanding of the cosmos. And in his roles as Vice President of Research and Chief Scientist at Bell Labs he fundamentally shaped the direction of our institution.
Arno and his Bell Labs colleague Bob Wilson were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1978 for their discovery of the cosmic background radiation resulting from the Big Bang. And throughout Arno’s storied career he received many more accolades, including the Henry Draper Medal and the Harold Pender Award, for his contributions to astronomy and applied science.
To us, Arno represented far more than his many accomplishments. He embodied the Bell Labs approach to innovation. Arno, like all his colleagues at Bell Labs, was an applied scientist, seeking answers to the technical challenges of communications. But in the course of his research, he uncovered bigger challenges and learned bigger truths.
In 1964, Arno and Bob were conducting cosmological experiments with the Horn Antenna in Holmdel, NJ when they encountered a continuous buzzing noise that seemed to be coming from all parts of the sky. That noise turned out to be one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the 20th century. Those signals were the cosmic residue left over from the Big Bang, the vast explosion that created the universe billions of years ago.
Arno and Bob had much more modest ambitions when they set about their research. They were investigating whether the Horn Antenna, which was designed to pick up satellite signals from low orbit, could be used as a radio telescope that could peek within the confines of our galaxy. When they first encountered the cosmic hiss, they thought it was interference coming from nearby cities or even pigeons nesting in the antenna’s “horn”.
When Arno and Bob finally recognized signal as cosmic background radiation, they found the answer to one of the most perplexing questions in physics. Before their breakthrough, there were competing theories over the origins of the universe. Their discovery put that debate to rest.
In Bell Labs’ nearly hundred years of history, we’ve seen this scenario play out before. The invention of the transistor and the creation of Information Theory were both intended to solve key communications problems of their eras. But those discoveries produced wave after wave of technological advances that eventually ushered in the digital and internet ages.
Arno didn’t just embody the Bell Labs approach to discovery and innovation. He took that approach to its ultimate end. He explained how it all began.
Arno Penzias, you will be sorely missed.
