Gravitational waves "seen" must make Einstein happy ;-)

[Helena D'Orville 33237]

Are we about to soon find out how to travel in space and time???

 

I have never been good in understanding physics but I can understand how important and exciting this new discovery is: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35524440

 

So for those of you who are good at physics, know about it, how do you welcome these important news? What are the ideas, deductions, potentials etc... that you see in this?

 

And as I love movies, here is a link to the imdb page of the movie "Interstellar" that you could see (on Netflix). It is related to the subject of this post: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_8

 

Physicists, scientists, dreamers, whoever you are, tell us what you see coming from this!

[MightyPen 67414]

It's really cool! Gravity waves are teeny tiny pulses in space/time. Think of the fabric of the universe itself expanding and shrinking ever so slightly, in a pulsing rhythm, as energy surges past from some incredibly powerful distant event. That's a gravitational wave.

 

The idea isn't new, and that kind of erodes the astonishment; there's a temptation to say "yeah, whatever, didn't we know there were gravitational waves already?". But though we were pretty sure, now we really do know for certain, with real experimental evidence.

 

Unfortunately no, this doesn't really help with travel through time or space. But it gives us a new way to measure the universe, like opening your eyes for the first time and discovering the sense of sight. (Headlines prefer to call it "hearing" for the first time... since it touches on "vibrations" in a medium, I guess I can see why.) And with a new source of information, we're bound to learn new things. That's why this new capability that our species just gained holds continuing promise for the future, beyond this one detection.

 

I'm super happy that I've lived to see several rovers cruise around on the surface of Mars, our species' first good look at Pluto, and now gravitational waves. And a probe landed on Titan, and things orbiting asteroids... It's a pretty cool time to be alive.

[Guest st*****ens**ors]

I was fascinated by that headline. I think the implications are more theoretical than practical, but all those scientists working on a grand "theory of everything" will be sending grudging tips of the hat back to Einstein whose work and intuition continue to be relevant today.

[cinelli 22184]

It may have practical applications in a hundred years or so. It will take years of debate to figure this out.

Quantum theory has plenty of uses all around us in things we take for granted, GPS for example. But quantum theory itself was debated for years before becoming accepted. Einstein was quite opposed to it. It's where his (oft abused) quote about God playing dice with the universe comes from.

In his later years at the Princeton academy he was sadly marginalised by actual scientists, although very popular with the public.

[Mikeyboy 27133]

It isn't so much what it tells us that is exiting. It's what it has the potential for us to learn. The comparison that seems to fit best is the discovery of X rays, and how their use has advanced our ability to observe and measure everything from broken bones, to the movement of the cosmos. I think the implications of this are going to be staggering; and at the speed we are currently learning, it won't be long before we see the benefit if this discovery.