Australia's part in the global effort to discover gravitational waves
Feb 12, 2016 07:39 am UTC| Science
The historic discovery of gravitational waves announced this week involved the work of more than a thousand scientists working tirelessly in several different institutions, across many different countries and...
Timeline: the history of gravity
Feb 12, 2016 00:47 am UTC| Science
Our understanding of gravity has gone through a few permutations, from Newtons equations through to Einsteins general relativity. With todays discovery of gravitational waves, we look back on how our grasp of gravity has...
On detecting gravitational waves, landmark science and the media
Feb 11, 2016 23:58 pm UTC| Science Technology
A few hours ago the most eagerly-awaited press conference in physics this century was held in the US by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC). It was widely anticipated that the consortium would announce the first direct...
The logic of journal embargoes: why we have to wait for scientific news
Feb 11, 2016 16:22 pm UTC| Science
Rumors were flying through the blogosphere this winter: physicists at the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) may finally have directly detected gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of...
What happens when LIGO texts you it's detected one of Einstein's predicted gravitational waves
Feb 11, 2016 15:52 pm UTC| Science
The best thing about a day in my life on the lookout for gravitational waves is that I never know when it will begin. Like many of my colleagues working for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory...
Gravitational waves discovered: the universe has spoken
Feb 11, 2016 15:50 pm UTC| Science
Up until now, humanity has been deaf to the gravitational sounds of the universe. At last, we have heard our first message. On September 14, 2015, the first data arrived! Our observation of the gravitational waves from...
When black holes meet: inside the cataclysms that cause gravitational waves
Feb 11, 2016 15:47 pm UTC| Science
It has long been predicted that when two black holes merge, they ought to give out a staggering amount of energy in the form of gravitational waves. To put the breathtaking scale of this outburst into perspective, its...