Earlier this month, LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, recorded data that was used to offer proof of the existence of gravitational waves. These “ripples in the fabric of space-time [are] caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the Universe," according toLIGO. The waves heard in their experiment are most likely a product of two huge black holes spiraling around each other until collision, an idea that seems pretty hard for most of us to imagine. The waves were predicted by Einstein, and the sound of approval has finally taken the form of a chirp, almost a century later.
The practical uses of this discovery have obviously not yet been fully explored, but one thing we non-physicists should stop doing is asking. This is groundbreaking, providing evidence for ideas about the universe that are still mind-blowing 100 years after their conception. Before non-sarcastically asking, “So what?” or “Can we use them as a weapon?”, allow a few seconds to look into what is being said.
I’m not advising anyone to disregard how science directly applies to your daily life—there is a place for support, curiosity, ingenuity, and public involvement—but before you ask how this finding can serve you, just think about what that chirp really is. It's the sound of gravitational waves converted from mass three times as large as of the sun, in less than one second, over one billion years ago. Predicted to be caused by two black holes, each 30 times as large as the sun, colliding to form something even more massive, it deserves appreciation.
Moving forward, the possibilities of what this means aren’t clear, but as onlookers who don’t know where this discovery could lead or what it means for those in the lab, our job is most definitely not to play the authoritarian parental figure.
