The Priest and the Pigeon

At the end of the 19th century one of the most eminent scientists of the day in effect declared, "We know everything now; the rest is just measurement…," but he didn't know how the sun worked or what was inside an atom or how old the universe was. Many scientists at the time were content to simply say, "God did it." Strangely enough, around 25 years or so later, a Catholic priest didn't think that was a good enough answer. He met with Albert Einstein to discuss a hypothesis he'd developed using Einstein's own Theory of Relativity to show how the universe might have a beginning. Sadly, Albert was not impressed at the time and said so. In the years that followed, the priest was largely forgotten. In 1964, after the forced resettlement of a couple of pigeons from a borrowed piece of equipment, two surprised engineers received one of the oddest Nobel Prize nominations ever. The priest is not the only character whom history almost forgot. There's the woman who gave us a way to measure interstellar distances and the woman who showed us what the sun is actually made of. Neither of them received a Nobel Prize. Today we know how the sun works, what's inside an atom and how old the universe is. How? And what on earth do the Dambusters have to do with it?