My name is George Smoot III, and I AM smarter than a fifth-grader.

Both my parents instilled an interest in science and mathematics.

But every day I go to work I'm making a bet that the universe is simple, symmetric, and aesthetically pleasing — a universe that we humans, with our limited perspective, will someday understand.

I played football and ran track in junior high, but by high school I was getting serious about my studies.

With something like Chernobyl, the public reaction was Oh, my God, science has really done wrong.

The big bang, the most cataclysmic event we can imagine, on closer inspection appears finely orchestrated.

There is no doubt that a parallel exists between the big bang as an event and the Christian notion of creation from nothing.