Scientists Struggle To Stay Grounded After Possible Gravitational Wave Signal (theguardian.com)

schwit1 writes with news that cosmologist Lawrence Krauss has set the scientific community abuzz by confirming a rumor floating around for the past several months that the LIGO experiment may have discovered gravitational waves. The excitement centers on a longstanding experiment known as the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) which uses detectors in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana to look for ripples in the fabric of spacetime. According to the rumors, scientists on the team are in the process of writing up a paper that describes a gravitational wave signal. If such a signal exists and is verified, it would confirm one of the most dramatic predictions of Albert Einstein’s century-old theory of general relativity. Krauss said he was 60% confident that the rumor was true, but said he would have to see the scientists’ data before drawing any conclusions about whether the signal was genuine or not. But many scientists are trying to calm the hype. Krauss admits he hasn't spoken to anyone within the LIGO team. Further, to enhance the integrity of their work, the LIGO team will occasionally "purposefully inject false signals in to their data to test the sensitivity of their analysis techniques and to keep people honest." A LIGO spokesperson said, "We’ll certainly let you know when we have news to share."

Comments

Not sure

[Yoda222]

Is he confirming that the object of the rumor is true, or is he confirming that a rumor exists?

Not Krauss' discovery

[DrNico]

Even if it does turn out to be true, what is Lawrence Krauss doing giving the game away on other scientists discoveries before they are published? This would be one of the discoveries of the decade and he has not done the work and has no right to announce it. Further, it could cause problems if the researchers do have a result and try to publish. High impact journals often have rules about not disclosing results before they appear in print.

Re:Not Krauss' discovery

[tinkerton]

I agree Krauss's announcement is problematic, but not because of some claim to have been involved in the discovery. With the mediatisation of science you get a lot more noise in the system and science is a lot about minimizing noise, about having statements that are as solid as possible. Science, as the title says, is about being well grounded.
Journals have other reasons as well for nondisclosure.

Re:Gravity waves already confirmed, nobel prize

[Anonymous Coward]

It is funny how experimental physicists get all excited about things that were confirmed by astronomy a while back.

It's hell of a difference observing something that you can explain with gravitational waves and being able to verify by repetition.

Think of a magic show. The magician appears to conjure doves out of thin air.
Now, a scientifically minded person will think that he probably kept it in his sleeve the whole time.
It's not until you can recreate the process that you will know if the dove was in the sleeve or if the magician picked up the dove with the other hand while you weren't looking.

Astronomy is great for disproving theories since you can see examples on a large scale. It is also great for figuring out new theories.
Trying to verify theories with astronomy on the other hand is impractical since we don't have a method to move stars around to see if they are what caused a phenomenon or if it's just a coincidence.

Re:Stay grounded?

[Big Hairy Ian]

So there's this rumor and the article neither confirms or denies it. What's the point of the article

Re:Stay grounded?

[fahrbot-bot]

So there's this rumor and the article neither confirms or denies it. What's the point of the article

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