From the bottom of goodie bags

From the BBC:

Two US scientists, John C Mather and George F Smoot, have won the 2006 Nobel Physics Prize.

They have been honoured "for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB)".

The CMB is the "oldest light" in the Universe - it is all around us and comes from a time just 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

What exactly have they won this award for ?

The findings themselves, or for being able to convince people that it really is important and not a complete waste of time, money & talent ?