Gravitational Waves Discovered! Lots of Scientists Are in Geek Heaven!!
it's SO exciting, I was hoping someone was going to talk about the science news. 
There've been a few false declarations in recent years ('we've found!' 'Oops, err no we didn't really'), so this is massive. (Forgive the pun)
I'm sad for people who can't see why it's important, or believe it's a waste of $$$. For one basic starting reason: it validates a lot of following (and dependent) science and tech we rely on. There's a lot more as well, but it's just massive news!
(It's been a big month for science news; lots of good stuff happening)
I don't know why -- the URL looks identical -- but Jude's link gave me a 404 error. If others encounter the same problem, see if this works:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/gravitational-waves-einstein-s-ripples-spacetime-spotted-first-time
As mind-boggling as the explosion itself is/was, I'm also impressed by how astrophysicists can trace and explain its cause from the almost indetectible evidence of the wave.
How's this for part of the story of persistence??
hat-do-they-mean/7159238 
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/opinion/sunday/finding-beauty-in-the-darkness.html
At dinner last night we had an animated discussion about this with our 8th grader who heard about it from her teacher and her friends. Above and beyond how this discovery will lead to other mind boggling revelations, this kind of breakthrough and the media excitement it generates open an intellectual door through which kids can see a world beyond texting and Snapchat. It's awesome.
Well, I mean, just think what those waves could do to Snapchat and txt... It could mean disaster or it could be (literally) awesome. 
Don't know if I can pull this off -- does take a lot of logistical work -- but I will try to get an after school seminar open to anyone for a description of the breakthrough. Remember, we are not astrophysicists at CHS but we have two teachers who have astronomy knowledge in-depth (one taught at Seton Hall and one teaches astronomy now at CHS) and we have some access to astronomy departments locally. If I can do it, it might be a fun session -- can sell Big Bang t-shirts and geeky stuff like that.
Will try to set this up and will see where this goes.
DaveSchmidt said:
I don't know why -- the URL looks identical -- but Jude's link gave me a 404 error. If others encounter the same problem, see if this works:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/gravitational-waves-einstein-s-ripples-spacetime-spotted-first-time
Jude's link has "%C2%A0" at the end.
haha
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/feb/12/gravitational-waves-science-should-go-out-and-buy-a-lottery-ticket-right-now
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Announcement today on detection of gravitational waves first predicted by Einstein. While it may not mean much for us today in deciding on who one should vote for or what wine to purchase, it is a huge deal in the world of physics. Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves and it took a century to verify his prediction. The scientists who managed this massive project are a lock for the Nobel Prize and it will lead to more incredible research and findings!
Here are a few links for the geeks among us:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/gravitational-waves-einstein-s-ripples-spacetime-spotted-first-time
I downloaded the actual paper from Physical Review Letters and it took a long time since so many people were trying to access the site.
In my Science Research class -- the junior group -- there is a kid doing astrophysics and he was so excited about this. His excitement spread to other kids, including those doing synthetic bio and archeology. At least in this slice of the world -- science and those who are or want to be scientists -- this is as big as it gets.
This is the abstract from the Phys Rev Letters paper:
Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
B. P. Abbott et al.*
(LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration)
(Received 21 January 2016; published 11 February 2016)
On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal.
The signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of 1.0 × 10−21. It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole.
The signal was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203 000 years, equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1σ.
The source lies at a luminosity distance of 410þ160
−180 Mpc corresponding to a redshift z ¼ 0.09þ0.03
−0.04 .
In the source frame, the initial black hole masses are 36þ5
−4M⊙ and 29þ4
−4M⊙, and the final black hole mass is
62þ4
−4M⊙, with 3.0þ0.5
−0.5M⊙c2 radiated in gravitational waves.
All uncertainties define 90% credible intervals.
These observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems. This is the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102
Well, yes, a bit dense. But my kids were devouring this paper today!