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Arts & Culture

Rad Scientist Ep. 12: A Nobel Pursuit, Part I

In this January 2008 photo, Brian Keating takes a selfie at the South Pole where he built the BICEP telescope to detect signals from the birth of our universe.
In this January 2008 photo, Brian Keating takes a selfie at the South Pole where he built the BICEP telescope to detect signals from the birth of our universe.
A Nobel Pursuit: Part I
How our universe came to be is still unknown. A discovery about this origin story will surely be Nobel Prize worthy. Brian Keating has an idea for how to make such a discovery. This is part one of a two-part story.

UC San Diego professor Brian Keating wanted to understand how our solar system, our galaxy, our universe came to be.

The big bang theory didn’t fully explain the properties of our universe. So he built a telescope at the South Pole to detect signals from the earliest time possible, billions of light years away.

This journey led him down a path of ambition, rivalry, discovery and failure. Ultimately, Keating has to grapple with his ego and what it means to be successful as a scientist.