Observation of the cosmic microwave background was a simultaneous discovery, according to James Peebles’ Nobel lecture. If I’m understanding this right, Bob Dicke’s group at Princeton was already looking for the CMB based on a theoretical prediction of it, and were doing experiments to detect it, with relatively primitive equipment, when the Bell Labs publication came out.
Observation of the cosmic microwave background was a simultaneous discovery, according to James Peebles’ Nobel lecture. If I’m understanding this right, Bob Dicke’s group at Princeton was already looking for the CMB based on a theoretical prediction of it, and were doing experiments to detect it, with relatively primitive equipment, when the Bell Labs publication came out.