said that ylem began as a cloud of neutrons, or neutral particles, some of which decayed radioactively to form protons, electrons, and neutrinos, the building blocks of matter. As the universe cooled and expanded, the remaining neutrons, plus protons and electrons, combined to form all the elements. This was the original view, but it was not entirely accurate, for the process apparently stopped with elements that have an atomic number of 5 or higher. Still, for the first time there was a workable formula for how the universe was born.
To prove this, it was necessary to find the resulting radiation and so prove the Big Bang theory. In 1948, though, there was no way to measure background radiation in space. To accomplish this, you needed to train a specific receiver on a specific band of the electromagnetic spectrum. In 1965, two art
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