The cosmic microwave background is the faint sizzle of microwaves dispersed throughout the universe and audible to any radio telescope. Astrophysicists point to the CMB as a major support for the universal-origins Big Bang theory. The discovery of this universe-spanning phenomenon came with a bit of a comedy of errors, though: The two scientists first heard the crackle of the CMB believing it was some defect in their antenna, including the waste of two pigeons residing in it. Read the story here.