BERKELEY, Calif. (Reuters) - Astrophysicist George Smoot spends his days pondering the origin of the universe. But when his phone rang before dawn on Tuesday with news that he and fellow American John Mather won the 2006 Nobel prize for physics, he was skeptical about the origin of the phone call.
"I was particularly surprised because my phone is unlisted," Smoot told an audience of journalists, students and professors at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he works. "It was these guys from the Swedish Academy; I'm going -- how did you get my phone number?"