PHOTOS BY JERRY WOLKOWITZ During a visit with students from William R. Satz School in Holmdel, Bob Wilson, a Nobel Prize winner in physics, explains some of his 1960s and 1970s research on the big-bang theory. Behind him is a photo of him and co-prize winner Arno Penzias, standing by a receiver, located on the Crawford Hill grounds in Holmdel and used to measure radiation from space.
HOLMDEL — Having Lucent Technologies in Holmdel may now become even more beneficial to township residents, but this time, it will be for the children.
During a visit to the Holmdel Road Lucent Technologies facility last week, seventh- and eighth-grade William R. Satz School science students had the opportunity to learn about the big-bang theory from one of the men who proved it scientifically.
Bob Wilson, who jointly won the Nobel Prize in 1978 with Arno Penzias, addressed the 30 students and explained how they came up with the theory, using the Crawford Hill horn-antenna, which resembles a giant horn.
Wilson explained to the students that during their research at the facility, which then was called AT&T Bell Telephone Laboratories, they had been using an ultra-sensitive microwave-receiving system to study radio emissions from the Milky Way when they found unexpected background noise they could not explain. It came from all directions, and after repeated checks, it appeared to come from outside of the universe. After extensive research using the antenna, they were able to theorize that the universe was created at a definite moment 15 billion years ago.
Alvaro H. Diaz, an engineer with Lu-cent Technologies and a physicist, uses a collapsing sphere to help explain the big-bang theory to students from the William R. Satz School, Holmdel.
"We were trying to do several things with the horn," Wilson said. "We wanted to look at the Milky Way and inside of it. We found something far greater than we expected. We lucked out."
Wilson, who still lives in Holmdel, now works at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass., mostly with engineering, he said, but creating telescopes. Wilson enjoyed the trip back to his old stomping ground. "It’s nice to see everything being the same. I am happy that I was able to come and talk to the students today. They had a lot of interesting questions for all of us. Hopefully, this will spur even more debate among them. All in all, this was a great day for all of us."
Michelle Davidson, a seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher who went on the trip, said that she was elated with how the day turned out. "I think this is a great opportunity. We spent a lot of time discussing the big-bang theory, so it was great to have the students come here today."
"This was really fun. I wanted to learn more about how the big-bang theory and how everything came together," said 13-year-old Anthony Molok. "This was a cool trip. I like science, so it was a new thing for me."
The lab trip came about earlier this year when Superintendent of Schools Leigh Byron was introduced to Lucent Vice President Ran Yan by former school board member Jun-Min Liu. Yan said that they felt it would be a good idea to bring the students to the lab.
"This is a rare and unique opportunity for the students," Byron said. "This is only the beginning."
"Hopefully they can continue this kind of dialogue," Liu said. "I also hope that the students will keep coming back to talk to other scientists."
That may be a real possibility. Yan said that they are currently discussing the prospect of having Holmdel students make additional trips to the lab, and then maybe branching out to other county schools.