Words To Use Today: white dielectric material.

In 1964 The radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were working at the Holmondel communications antenna in New Jersey. Unfortunately their experiments were made impossible because they couldn't get a clear signal; they kept picking up a constant, hissing interference.

They tried everything to get rid of the interference. They rebuilt the equipment, put duct tape over any joins, and even went up into the dish with brooms to clean off the white dielectric material the birds had deposited there.

In the end, defeated, they consulted Robert Dicke at Princetown, who realised straight away that this interference was the last traces of the cosmic radiation from the Big Bang that began the universe. 

Penzias and Wilson didn't know much about cosmic radiation, but they wrote a paper describing how they'd got on with trying to get rid of the hissing interference. The interpretation and explanation of what it was they left to Robert Dicke. 

Despite this, it was Penzias and Wilson who received the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics. 

I'm not saying that this was entirely fair, but using the term white dielectric material in their written report must surely have swept away any doubts on the part of the judging panel.

It seems, as you can see, that to be a Nobel prize-winner doesn't actually require knowledge and genius; but to avoid cheapening the brand he or she surely must have dignity. 

And describing their sweeping up of that encrusted bird mess would surely have put a stop to Penzias and Wilson having any chance of a prize.

Word To Use Today: dielectric. A dielectric is a substance that can sustain a static electric field within it. It can also be an insulator. The word comes from dia- which means through, and the Greek word ēlektron, amber (because amber is a notably dielectric material).