It's two years since Einstein was once again proven to earn the moniker of 'genius'. Consider his theorems are now over a century old and they are still being tested and confirmed to remarkable precision. At 5:51am [EST ] on the 14th of September 2015, the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors , located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford,…
Just published. On January 4th, 2017 scientists at the CalTech L.I.G.O detected the merger of two black holes 3 billion light-years away. At 2:11:58 a.m. on January 4th 2017 the arms of LIGO’s Hanford, WA interferometer shivered. Three milliseconds later, Livingston’s interferometer followed suit. Even though parts of the U.S. were experiencing record cold temperatures, the trembling wasn’t caused by…
Hearing the Universe We have detected gravitational waves. We did it. - David Reitze, executive director of LIGO At a time when reason and evidence appear under siege, and "belief" and "opinion" have a seeming privileged status in civil discourse unknown since the enlightenment, I am reminded of the words of the 17th Century Dutch Philosopher, Spinoza: The highest activity…