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?

Gravity waves already confirmed, nobel prize

[Kludge]

Hey, folks, gravity waves were already confirmed, the Nobel prize was already awarded:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
It is funny how experimental physicists get all excited about things that were confirmed by astronomy a while back.

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:Gravity waves already confirmed, nobel prize

[Gr8Apes]

It wasn't even an indirect detection, it was a series of observations about physical results that could be explained if the theory for gravity waves holds true. LIGO will actually measure gravity waves.