Steven Weinberg shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics with Sheldon Glashow and Abdus Salam for his contributions to the development of a theory unifying the electromagnetic and weak forces, two of the four forces governing nature. He predicted that one of the three particles inherent in the weak force could be found in "neutral currents." Its subsequent discovery in 1983 may have brought scientists one step closer to a unified theory of the universe.

Weinberg was born in New York City on May 3, 1933, to Frederick Weinberg, a court stenographer, and the former Eva Israel. Weinberg's early interests in science were nurtured both at home and at the world-famous Bronx High School of Science, from which he graduated in 1950. Like Glashow, his classmate at the Bronx High School, Weinberg decided to major in physics at Cornell University, graduating with a B.A. in 1954. He then spent a year at the...