Big Bang Theorist Dies
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 6, 2007 -- Ralph A. Alpher, 86, whose PhD dissertation on the Big Bang theory in 1948 brought into being the scientific theory of the origin of the universe, died Aug. 12 after a long illness. A long-time resident of the Albany, N.Y., Capital District area, Alpher was initially ridiculed and went largely unrecognized, until relatively recently, for his discovery that the universe occurred 14 billion years ago with a superhot explosion. Alpher had just received the National Medal of Science Award from...