TGR 09.17.18. How We Lost the Nobel Prize

On this edition of The Gralien Report, we kick things off with a quick analysis of the controversy surrounding the sudden closing of the Sunspot Observatory, for which the FBI has given no explanation to-date. Then, recapping their recent travel to Wyoming, Micah and Race Hobbs discuss some of the themes and skeptical tones that were shared among speakers at the 2018 Devil’s Tower UFO Rendezvous, where Micah gave a lecture recently along with researchers like David Marler, Alejandro Rojas, Marc D’Antonio, and Lee Speigel, among others.

Then in hour two, we are joined by a professor of physics at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego. Brian is an expert in the study of the universe’s oldest light, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and has worked over the years toward understanding ways it can be used to learn about the origin and evolution of the universe. Keating joins us to discuss his new book, Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor. In it, Keating recounts the story of the BICEP2 affair and the concomitant problems with the Nobel Prize in physics… we discuss this, and much more, on this week’s edition of The Gralien Report.