The astrophysicist and cosmologist George Fitzgerald Smoot III received the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for work that led to the measurement of microwave background radiation in the universe. A graduate of MIT, Smoot received dual bachelors' degrees in mathematics and physics, and received his Ph.D. in particle physics in 1970. As a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Smoot began to study cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. This radiation is the reverberation of the Big Bang, the explosion that created the universe. Smoot devised a plan for equipping a satellite with microwave detection technology measure the radiation without interference from the earth's polluted atmosphere. NASA accepted Smoot's plan, launching the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) in 1989. The minute fluctuations in background radiation that OZCBE detected have enabled scientists to form a more accurate picture of the origins of the universe. Professor Smoot has shared his findings with the general public in the book Wrinkles in Time. Professor Smoot has been called "the planet's most popular astrophysicist." In 2009, he appeared as a contestant on a television quiz program called "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" He was, and won a million-dollar prize. In this podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 1994 Summit in Las Vegas, Professor Smoot told the Academy's student delegates how he was first drawn to the beauty of science. He shares his experiences at the South Pole. He urges the student delegates to follow their own goals and have their own adventures in life. Following his presentation, he is joined by Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project (later Director of the National Institutes of Health) and Richard J. Roberts, recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Medicine. The three scientists engage in a brief discussion of ethical issues related to progress in research.