150 - John Mather: The Big Bang and the Cosmic Microwave Background

John Mather is a Senior Astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He was the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his role as Principle Investigator for the Far IR Absolute Spectrophotometer on COBE, which observed the cosmic microwave background and helped support the big bang theory of the origin of the universe. John has also worked on many other projects for NASA, including the James Webb Space Telescope. In this episode, Robinson and John discuss the big bang and the cosmic microwave background before detailing the COBE satellite, its extraordinary findings, and the work that led to winning the Nobel Prize.

The Very First Light: https://a.co/d/6iaWMOK

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:35 Introduction

02:56 John’s Scientific Background

12:50 Where Did the Big Bang Theory Come From

22:28 The Electromagnetic Spectrum

27:48 John’s Thesis and the Road to COBE

42:57 Designing the Nobel-Winning COBE Satellite

01:05:38 Some Further Background

01:08:08 The Cosmic Microwave Background and the Nobel Prize

01:35:52 John’s More Recent Projects

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.