Janna Levin on the discovery of gravitational waves

This month's Perimeter Institute public lecture is "Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space" by Janna Levin, author and professor of physics and astronomy at Columbia University

On the one hand, this was expected. We know that mass bends space and time, and so when mass moves it really should cause ripples in space and time, in much the same way that a gymnast moving on the surface of a trampoline causes ripples in the cloth.

On the other hand ... Well, there are several other hands actually. Firstly, we have seen ripples in space-time!

Janna Levin's book, Black Hole Blues, was my favourite science read of 2016. It describes the difficult characters and even more difficult science behind the greatest physics discovery of 2016 - the first observation of the gravitational waves predicted by Einstein's General Relativity. It is a fascinating and entertaining read, and Levin's lecture at the Perimeter Institute should be well worth watching. See below.