Double Black Hole Hails Discovery of Gravity Waves

Summary: It's the announcement of a discovery you didn't know you were waiting for. The detection of gravitational waves. It sounds weird, of course, but Einstein was onto something big when he was working on his theory of general relativity. Similar to a ball warping the surface of a rubber sheet, or a kayak being thrown into the water, large objects in outer space warp the fabric of the four dimensional spacetime that we live in.

When this happens, gravitational waves ripple through space and expand or contract the space around them. These waves have been undetectable until now. It is thanks to the LIGO interferometer that we can detect these faint waves in the universe. These waves are understandably hard to detect, the measurements are on a scale less than a width of an atom. They were able to detect this thanks to a double black hole.

Quite deservedly, the scientists involved are quite proud of their work. As this is both the first detection of gravity waves and the first direct detection of a black hole in addition to being confirmation of general relativity, they are confident that there is a Nobel Prize in their future and I am inclined to agree.

Either way, it is an exciting breakthrough in astronomy and one that I am excited to have as I enter the field.


APS Article
BBC News
Nature
SciShow

Source for Dark Matter and Antimatter News

I stumbled upon a link on the APS website to an archive of all their cosmology news which includes lots of articles on Dark Matter and antimatter and the beginnings of the universe. If any of that interests you, don't hesitate to check it out.


APS-Cosmology

Single Atom Switch

Summary: There's a lot of technical science in this article but the heart of the matter is scientists were able to create a simple optical switch out of just one atom.



American Physical Society

Another Disappointment in Dark Science

Summary: One possible explanation for all of this Dark Matter that should be detected but isn't, is that Dark Matter could consist of relatively small black holes created in the early days of the universe. However, lack of data from Kepler supporting this theory has crossed of another possibility on our 'What in Sagan's Name is this stuff?' list.



American Physical Society

Lightest Tripod Ever

Summary: High precision measurements require optical elements to be super-duper stable to researchers has proposed using light beams reflected off of three mirrors to suspend a fourth mirror in the air to be used in measurements. It sounds crazy until you remember that (A) the suspended mirror is only two millimeters in diameter and (B) the reason this might be possible is quantum mechanics so of course it sounds crazy.



American Physical Society

Slaying the Dragon Kings

Summary: Dragon kings: extreme events such as earthquakes and financial crashes that can occur with devastating effect in complex systems.
A weird term but a very serious one. This article details how scientists have found a way to predict and then prevent them.



Physics World
American Physical Society