Grote Reber (1911–2002)

news and views Obituary Tasmania, where the ionospheric attenuation of radio waves is at a Grote Reber (1911–2002) minimum, Reber designed and built a number of antennas to study galactic radio On 5 May 1933, The New York Times emission at wavelengths of a few hundred carried a front-page article reporting metres, as well as building an energy- Karl Jansky’s discovery of radio noise efficient home in Bothwell, where he lived NRAO/AUI emanating from the centre of the Galaxy. for many years. Jansky had been investigating the source of Except for a brief period between 1948 interference in the short-wave radio links and 1951 when he was at the National that were then used for transatlantic Bureau of Standards in Washington, Reber telecommunications. But although his worked as an amateur whose research was discovery received considerable popular directed only by his curiosity and attention, it made no impact on imagination. He paid no attention to mainstream astronomy. As Grote Reber establishment science — except to express commented, “The astronomers of the time his disregard. “There were no self- didn’t know anything about radio or appointed pontiffs looking over my electronics, and the radio engineers didn’t shoulder giving bad advice,” he explained. know anything about astronomy”. “The kinds of things I want to do are the Reber was then a 22-year-old kind establishment men will not have engineering graduate of the Armour any part of.” Institute of Technology in Illinois In addition to his pioneering work in with a specialty in electronics and radio astronomy, Reber also published communications. He had built and research in a variety of fields ranging from operated his own amateur radio station, radio circuitry and ionospheric physics W9GFZ, and was looking for new to the growth of beans and the carbon challenges when he heard Jansky’s ‘star Father of radio dating of aboriginal campfire sites. noise’ as it was rebroadcast by NBC astronomy Throughout his career, he was unable radio. Reber tried to contact professional to secure funding from any of the astronomers about it, but they showed little conventional sources, such as the US interest. “So,” he later related, “I consulted But Reber’s radio map provided the National Science Foundation or the with myself and decided to build a dish.” incentive for the dramatic growth in radio Department of Defense. Instead, he relied With $2,000 of his own money — about astronomy that occurred after the end of on modest support from the New York- equivalent to his annual salary, but which the Second World War. Former radar based Research Corporation, as well as his he claimed he managed to afford by using scientists and astronomers, primarily in own personal funds. public transport instead of buying a car — the United Kingdom, Australia and the Grote Reber was the world’s first radio he built a 32-foot antenna in his mother’s Netherlands, built a series of ever more astronomer. His 32-foot backyard backyard. He took astronomy courses at powerful radio telescopes. With them, they telescope was the forerunner of the large the University of Chicago, and using his made remarkable discoveries that have steerable radio telescopes of today, as well experience and skills as an electrical changed our fundamental understanding as the smaller satellite-television dishes engineer and radio amateur he designed, of the Universe. The enormously energetic found in so many homes. Although Karl built and tested a series of sensitive radio clouds of relativistic electrons and cosmic Jansky was the first to detect cosmic radio receivers. After many failures, in the jets that extend up to millions of light years emission, it was Reber who, through his spring of 1939 Reber finally succeeded in into space, as well as quasars, pulsars, innovative experiments, forceful detecting Jansky’s galactic radio noise. gravitational lensing, cosmic microwave personality and stubborn persistence, Automobile-ignition noise interfered masers, extrasolar planetary systems, finally convinced astronomers that it with Reber’s observations, so he observed complex interstellar molecules, and the might be important and opened a new at night, laboriously writing down the cosmic microwave background radiation window on the Universe. readings from his detector every minute. were all discovered by radio telescopes. Until a few months before his death on By day, he returned to his job in Chicago, Radio telescopes have also been used to 20 December 2002, two days before his 91st catching a few hours’ sleep each evening measure the relativistic bending of birthday, Reber continued to be active on a before returning to his night’s electromagnetic waves that pass near the variety of scientific, political and social observations. At weekends, he analysed his Sun, and to demonstrate the existence of issues. He argued, with equal enthusiasm, data, and eventually produced the first gravitational radiation and measure against the Big Bang Universe and the high-resolution radio map of the sky. He continental drift. increasing use of fossil fuels, and took a also discovered the surprisingly intense Since Reber’s early work, radio public stand against ‘big science’. He radio-noise storms from the Sun. astronomers have steadily moved to ever was described by some as a genius, At first, his work was received with shorter wavelengths in the quest for better by others as a crackpot; but he was scepticism by the astronomy community, angular resolution and for the multitude ultimately recognized by the astronomy and he had great difficulty getting his of molecular transitions that exist in the community with the award of most of its papers accepted for publication in the millimetre and submillimetre wavebands. major prizes. K. I. Kellermann astronomical literature. According to Reber, however, as usual departing from K. I. Kellermann is at the National Radio Reber, the professionals thought “the conventional ‘wisdom’, concentrated in Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, whole affair was at best a mistake and at his later research on extremely long Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-2475, USA. worst, a hoax”. wavelengths. Working with Bill Ellis in e-mail: [email protected] 596 © 2003 Nature Publishing Group NATURE | VOL 421 | 6 FEBRUARY 2003 | www.nature.com/nature.

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