Gravity's shadow the search for gravitational waves / [electronic resource] :
Harry Collins.
- University of Chicago Press, 2004.
- 1 online resource (xxiii, 870 p.) : ill.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 837-854) and index.
Preface; Acknowledgments; Common Acronyms in Gravitational Wave Research; Introduction: Two Kinds of Space-Time; Part I: A La Recherche Des Ondes Perdues; Part II: Two New Technologies; Part III: Bar Wars; Part IV: The Interferometers and the Interferometeers-From Small Science to Big Science; Part V: Becoming a New Science; Part VI: Science, Scientists, and Sociology; Coda: March-April 2004; Appendices; Intro. 1: What Is Small?; Intro. 2: Gravitational Waves, Gravitational Radiation, and Gravity Waves: A Note on Terminology.
According to the theory of relativity, we are constantly bathed in gravitational radiation. When stars explode or collide, a portion of their mass becomes energy that disturbs the very fabric of the space-time continuum like ripples in a pond. But proving the existence of these waves has been difficult; the cosmic shudders are so weak that only the most sensitive instruments can be expected to observe them directly. Fifteen times during the last thirty years scientists have claimed to have detected gravitational waves, but so far none of those claims have survived the scrutiny of the scientifi.