Lab Tuned to Gravity's 'Ripples'

Krishna Dagli writes "One of the great scientific experiments of our age is now fully underway. Success would confirm fundamental physical theories and open a new window on the Universe, enabling scientists to probe the moment of creation itself. The experiment is trying to detect ripples created in the fabric of space-time that sweep out from merging black holes or exploding stars and detection would be a final test of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. "

Comments

Re:negative outcomes?

[mwvdlee]

Plausible alternative hypotheses are nice to have, but shouldn't be a requirement for the simple reason that there might not be any plausible alternatives. Or at least none concievable with current knowledge, thus further necessitating the gathering of scientific proof as it can show whether you're missing some vital piece of knowledge.

Re:negative outcomes?

[TheChrisMan]

"It's important to have alternative hypotheses"

Is it? If I remember correctly the lack of an alternate hypothesis when Michelson and Morley failed to detect the aether caused Einstein to beging pondering special relativity.