Black hole blues
by Janna Levin · first published 2016
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"In 1916, Einstein became the first to predict the existence of gravitational waves: sounds without a material medium generated by the unfathomably energy-producing collision of black holes. Now, Janna Levin, herself an astrophysicist, recounts the story of the search, over the last fifty years, for these elusive waves--a quest that has culminated in the creation of the most expensive project ever funded by the National Science Foundation ($1 billion-plus). She makes clear the how the waves are created in the cosmic collision of black holes, and why the waves can never be detected by telescope
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One thing the book Black Hole Blues (Janna Levin) brought home to me was the absurdity of actually getting this project done. Now that it's complete, it's easy to say that it was obviously a good idea. It's another thing entirely to bet…
on “The Absurdity of Detecting Gravitational Waves (2017) [video]” ↗Janna Levin, Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space. It describes the construction of the LIGO experiment over a span of about 50 years. It does have a lot of character studies (one of Levin’s strengths) but also plenty…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗…Winchester - Precision engineering. 30. The Little Engine That Could - Children's classic. 31. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell - Success mechanics. 32. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight - Founding of Nike. 33. Black Hole Blues by Janna Levin - Building LIGO. 34. Freedom’s Forge - WWII industry mobilization. 35. Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes - Electrification by Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse. 36. The Path Between the Seas…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗I was at a talk by Janna Levin, astrophysicist and author of a book Black Hole Blues that describes LIGO. (E.g., https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/18/books/review-black-hole-b...) She gave a neat analogy between GWs, as sensed by LIGO, and an electric guitar. In the sense that a distant…
on “LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves for Third Time” ↗In the book Black Hole Blues by Janna Levin [0], she mentions that there was one member of the LIGO project who became the "go to" person for any technical discussions because they had memorized large parts of the infrastructure.…
on “How I remember what I learn” ↗Sean Carroll is interviewing Janna Levin at the LA Public Library downtown branch, next Thursday night: http://lfla.org/event/black-hole-blues-songs-outer-space/
on “Lecture Notes on General Relativity (1997)” ↗