“Black Hole Blues” by Janna Levin

Review:

An interesting subject but not given justice when presented. The book is based on a series of interviews with the project participants and their recollection of various events and interaction between the project members.

I was hoping to learn more about the LIGO operation and detection techniques, therefore only 2 stars from me.

Inspect the whole Science Section -->

My Notes:

There are two LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) observatories, one in Hanford, Washington, and the other in Livingston, Louisiana.

People, who contributed to LIGO development:

1. Rainer Weiss – came up with an idea to pick up a gravitational wave,

2. Kip Thorne – provided theoretical background around the gravitational waves subject.

3. Ronald Drever – an experimental physicist who set up the detector

4. Joe Weber announced in 1969 that he managed to detect the gravitational waves. He got discredited by not admitting mistakes in his detection process.

The first prototype was built in Caltech and called “40 meters” due to the length of its arms.

In 1989, Rochus Vogt submitted to the National Science Foundation a proposal titled “The Construction, Operation, and Supporting Research and Development of a Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory”.