Luis Alvarez's scientific contributions to the military during World War II included the development of a narrow beam radar system that allows airplanes to land in inclement weather. He was also involved in the Manhattan Project to develop the world's first nuclear weapons. One of Alvarez's more controversial theories involved the possibility of a massive collision of a meteorite with the Earth 65 million years ago, an event that Alvarez believed may account for the disappearance of the dinosaurs. Among the many honors that Alvarez received was the 1968 Nobel Prize for physics for his development of giant bubble chambers used to detect a variety of subatomic particles.

Luis Walter Alvarez was born in San Francisco, California, on June 13, 1911. His father, Dr. Walter Clement Alvarez, was a medical researcher at the University of California at San Francisco and also maintained a private practice. Luis' mother was the former Harriet Skidmore...