Way OT: Gravitational Waves discovered???
For the uber-geeks out there, be sitting down: Twitterverse (never known to be wrong) is abuzz with the suggestion that LIGO has detected gravitational waves. To the non-geeks, this is a huge, major, really big scientific discovery. It basically is a "check the box" of one of Einstein's major theories, which mostly had been assumed to be unprovable.
I can post a ton of links, or you can google it, but here's one link: http://www.techinsider.io/gravity-waves-detected-rumor-2016-1
What's a gravitational wave? The idea is, if a massive body (black hole, large star, etc.) undergoes a sudden movement -- like a cataclysmic explosion, or an impact with another equally-sized mass -- then a ripple will be created in its gravitational feels, for a brief moment. Gravity travels across vast distances, so a gravitational wave, basically, can travel millions or billions of lightyears.
Only, gravity is so weak,* it was long assumed gravitational waves can't be detected. Scientists, armed with big budgets, weren't to be deterred, and set out building huge experiments to detect them. LIGO is the most famous. IIRC, it's basically an L-shaped underground tunnel, many miles long, where a laser beam is split then travels down both legs and recombined. If a gravitational wave were to pass through the Earth, it would affect the two legs different (being oriented differently), and the split laser beams when recombined would be out of phase. You'd detect the wave -- if you could eliminate every other possible source of vibrations (e.g. trucks driving overhead).
* How weak is gravity? It's (1 followed by 40 zeros) times weaker than electromagnetism. Put another way. A single magnet the size of a pencil eraser can lift a paperclip off of a table; meaning, that tiny magnet exerts more force on the paperclip than does the gravity of our entire planet.
Should you care? Discovering gravitational waves doesn't have immediate, practical implications, except that I'm sure HARBAUGH will use them to break down defensive fronts next season. But this is a step towards confirming the basic building blocks of the universe. There could be long-term research implications from this, and ultimately, if you wanted to build a signalling device to humans around other stars (or on long-duration interstellar missions), sending gravity waves is better than light signals b/c they travel so damn far.
Here we go again? A year ago, there were rumors LIGO had discovered gravitational waves. The idea was debunked by the scientists on the project, and the rumor died down. It seems that TODAY, the rumors are exploding in the scientific community, and they aren't being debunked by the scientists involved -- just, you know, "still checking the data."
Still...pretty cool. Even if this doesn't come to pass, it's a neat window for non-scientists into the cutting edge stuff that our technology, and budgets, is able to achieve. It seems that these kind of "aha!" moments are coming more and more for us now.
January 11th, 2016 at 10:12 PM ^
I'll take, "Threads that would not be found on the RCMB" for $1600, Alex.
January 12th, 2016 at 12:22 AM ^
You will learn from RCMB that Kirk Ferentz has been spying on the North Korea. Really though, it's a funny picture.
January 11th, 2016 at 10:12 PM ^
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January 11th, 2016 at 10:21 PM ^
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January 11th, 2016 at 11:18 PM ^
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January 11th, 2016 at 10:14 PM ^
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January 11th, 2016 at 10:15 PM ^
But what about EA NCAA Football for Xbox One?
January 11th, 2016 at 10:16 PM ^
January 11th, 2016 at 10:17 PM ^
January 11th, 2016 at 10:18 PM ^
January 11th, 2016 at 10:18 PM ^
That was an outstanding explanation for we liberal arts majors.
Two questions. I'm assuming since you are all Mr. Physics that your name is due to string theory. Does this discovery pretain to that at all? Also, is that a Battlestar Galactica profile picture?
January 11th, 2016 at 10:24 PM ^
BSG...so say we all.
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January 12th, 2016 at 3:10 AM ^
Fraking toasters
January 11th, 2016 at 11:06 PM ^
No, it doesn't relate to string theory. It's really a confirmation of Einstein's general relativity theory, which turned 100 last year. These waves have long been predicted; they're just very hard to find.
String theory predicts nothing, to be honest, and it's a huge controversy in physics. People with their entire careers invested in string theory refuse to give up on it and are pushing for new paradigms that redefine how science is done and what constitutes a discovery. Other people argue that it's time to throw sring theory on the rubbish heap and move on.
January 11th, 2016 at 10:23 PM ^
Seriously, thanks for the update. Wonder when it will be discussed on the BBT?
January 11th, 2016 at 10:29 PM ^
But a billion negs couldnt accurately portray my hatred towards that show.
January 11th, 2016 at 10:34 PM ^
No problem, curious as to why? I get it that they have many stereo types on the show, but at least they are trying to portray science or scientific achievement in a positive light vs. a show like Seinfeld which was about nothing - but I liked that show also.
January 11th, 2016 at 10:47 PM ^
January 11th, 2016 at 11:02 PM ^
Watch it without the laugh track on Youtube. During live filming, half the audience usually leaves because the awkward moments arent funny without the laughtrack to remind you to laugh. Apparently they have a light that clicks on to tell them when to laugh, and even afterwards, they have to add more laughter via laughtrack to make up for the lack of laughter during live filming.
I read the laughtrack stuff online, but it doesnt really surprise me that much.
January 11th, 2016 at 11:26 PM ^
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January 11th, 2016 at 11:28 PM ^
All sitcoms use laugh tracks and audience cues. Additionally, much of the comedy is subtle and or beyond the comprehension of many.
January 12th, 2016 at 12:06 AM ^
I can comprehend the humor. I just dont think its funny.
January 12th, 2016 at 1:23 AM ^
The Office
Parks & Recreation
30 Rock
Arrested Development
Community
Modern Family
Always Sunny in Philadelphia
many others
Seinfeld was the pinnacle of the traditional sitcom formula, and the last really good show to use a laugh track. You won't see another. (Of course I know that's an opinion, but it's the right one)
January 12th, 2016 at 3:24 AM ^
Those shows are all hilarious. Dont forget Malcolm in the Middle.
January 12th, 2016 at 10:06 AM ^
As soon as I read that post, half of your list popped into my head.
New Girl
Veep
Silicon Valley
Last Man on Earth
Brooklyn 99
etc....
And your Seinfeld opinion is undoubtedly correct.
(This comment also goes to show just how far over my head the discussion of gravitational waves soared)
January 12th, 2016 at 11:34 AM ^
I've never heard 'lowest common denominator" described as "subtle."
January 12th, 2016 at 12:34 AM ^
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January 12th, 2016 at 12:47 AM ^
January 11th, 2016 at 10:20 PM ^
I'm always amazed at the research that is going on at the top STEM universities. Makes me proud when UM in leading efforts in Engineering and Medicine.
Thanks again for the post. I'm gonna casually drop some of these nuggets of information at my next social engagement and pretend I understand all of this.
January 11th, 2016 at 11:13 PM ^
It's a huge collaboration. NSF (National Science Foundation) funds it along with some foreign contributions, I believe. This looks like a list of collaborators: https://my.ligo.org/census.php Over a thousand scientists. UM is represented.
January 12th, 2016 at 12:39 AM ^
I see the list of usual suspects. CalTech on both lists but they have no football team. Stanford just is Stanford. Glad to see UM represented.
January 11th, 2016 at 10:22 PM ^
January 11th, 2016 at 10:24 PM ^
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January 11th, 2016 at 10:26 PM ^
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January 11th, 2016 at 10:26 PM ^
That would seal it.
January 11th, 2016 at 11:24 PM ^
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January 11th, 2016 at 10:26 PM ^
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January 11th, 2016 at 10:28 PM ^
Higgs Boson (God Damn Particle) has been found. They landed a rocket on the launch pad, cars can drive themselves, real planning for trips to other freakin planets is happening. If we can stop blowing each other up for a few years we might just figure out what we don't know we don't know. Great time to be alive.
January 11th, 2016 at 10:28 PM ^
I'm gonna post this on RCMB and see what they think about gravity