50th Anniversary Special Feature: The Discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background

The world is becoming more closely connected every day. In 2014, the total number of mobile phone subscriptions will have exceeded the world's population. As a result, access to voice, Internet (data) and television (video) services are now ubiquitous for over half the world's population. The global telecommunications industry generates about 5 trillion USD in annual revenue and this has been shown to strongly correlate with GDP growth. Furthermore, broadband connectivity demands are expected to accelerate in all practical metrics, which will require the industry to innovate in areas such as signal transmission, coding, materials, applications and sustainability. In the midst of this communications technology explosion, we look back 50 years to a discovery that provided important insights into an explosion of another sort: the Big Bang. We show that this seminal discovery was the result of investigations into solving a practical problem (radio communications) and it has connections to a multitude of other subsequent innovations and discoveries. As a result, this legacy continues to inspire innovators to come together to invent technologies and methods that push the boundaries of information and communications technology and that will transform the way humans and machines connect and collaborate.