Nobel laureate makes bang with Northwest students

Hyattsville man looks toward future exploration, plans to donate prize money to science education

Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Brenda Ahearn⁄The Gazette John Mather of Hyattsville, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics, speaks Nov. 16 to Northwestern students in advanced placement courses in physics, chemistry and biology. Mather discussed his start in the sciences and his work toward proving the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe.

When a cage of eight baby rats sat in the 2006 Nobel Prize winner’s mother’s kitchen munching on various vitamins for a high school science fair project, the clouds began to part and Mather’s quest into the depths of science began.

‘‘This is not the sort of thing you just sit around waiting for,” he said of the physics award he will receive in December in Stockholm, Sweden.

Mather spent his entire adult life working on a project to advance the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.

‘‘It’s hard work but if it’s what you want to do, it’s not a sacrifice. I don’t do what I do to get recognized, I do it because I love it.”

Speaking with Northwestern High School students and teacher John Bois about his Cosmic Background Explorer satellite to the James Webb Space Telescope, Mather cloaked himself in humility and began at what he thinks is the beginning — a cataclysmic explosion that resulted in our universe.

Mather’s work proposes the universe is 13.7 billion years old, with Earth being just 4.5 billion. His work involved measuring the movement and colors of objects in space to determine their ages and distance from earth.

Mather, 60, shares the honor with fellow researcher George Smoot, 61, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkley, Calif. Mather’s portion of the award carries a $600,000 prize which he is planning to donate to charity for the furtherance of scientific education.

They succeeded in measuring faint traces of light from early in the history of the universe. The measurements helped show how the first galaxies and stars were formed.

While much curiosity has been quenched with Mather’s work, he said the ‘‘Big Bang” question of the ages remains — what caused it?

‘‘We’re still working on that,” he said.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences conferred the honor, which is the most prestigious in physics.

Mather lives with his wife in the newly annexed University Hills portion of Hyattsville. He has lived in Hyattsville for 18 years.

Mather’s menagerie space photographs and data captured the interest of Northwestern senior Chanice Harrison.

‘‘It kind of creates curiosity for me because the universe is very large and old,” she said. ‘‘It’s just amazing what astronomers can do with telescopes and simple equations.”

Mather’s next project is a 12,000-pound telescope he’s building that will be launched into space. Hopes for the scope include finding things that were first formed after the Big Bang and using infrared light to see stars formed within the Eagle Nebula — clouds of dust — that appear in the constellation Orion.

‘‘There are miracles yet to come if we can continue,” he said.

E-mail Sarah Nemeth at snemeth@gazette.net.