Arno Allan Penzias was born in Munich, Germany, in 1933. His family fled from the Nazi regime and came to the United States. Penzias attended Columbia University and, in 1961, went to work at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey.

Penzias had received a Ph.D. for his research in using masers (an acronym for "microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation") to measure radio signals coming from intergalactic hydrogen. It was his hope to use the nearly 20-foot (6-m), horn-shaped antenna at Bell Laboratories to continue his work, but it was in use at the time, sending and receiving signals that were being bounced off the earth-orbiting Echo satellite.

While waiting for the antenna to become available, he met Robert Wilson (1936- ). Wilson, a Texas native, had attended Rice University and the California Institute of Technology before coming to Bell Laboratories. Like Penzias, Wilson was interested in radio astronomy...