Heavy Sounds

The confirmation of "gravity waves" recently announced by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) does a lot of cool things, even though many of them are really just opening the door for other cool things.

There are four basic forces in the universe: electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, the strong nuclear force and gravity. Scientists have long theorized that the four are actually connected in some way and under some conditions might even be of the same force. The condensing process has already started, as you can see with the first item on the list: Electricity and magnetism, though they may have different impacts and effects in the world, are manifestations of the same force. So far, gravity has resisted combination with the other three, but the discovery of gravity waves may offer progress towards creating a unified field theory.

Gravity waves also confirm Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, which predicted them when it was published in 1915. But years without any solid observed evidence or even hints made scientists wonder, and even Einstein himself questioned their existence. He almost published a paper refuting that part of the theory, but was persuaded he had been right the first time.

Now that gravity waves have been confirmed, better detectors will come soon and be able to use them to open many new areas of astronomic study. Knowing what to look for will allow many different kinds of measurements not possible for instruments using only electromagnetic and nuclear means of detection.

And the coolest thing of all is that one of the scientists who was in on the early development of the LIGO lived to see the concept prove successful -- computer scientist Heinz Billing was born the year before Einstein published his theory and now, at almost 102, he has seen confirmation of what had been sought ever since.