Gravity's Shadow: The Search for Gravitational Waves

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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 scientific community. Gravity's Shadow chronicles the forty-year effort to detect gravitational waves, while exploring the meaning of scientific knowledge and the nature of expertise.

Gravitational wave detection involves recording the collisions, explosions, and trembling of stars and black holes by evaluating the smallest changes ever measured. Because gravitational waves are so faint, their detection will come not in an exuberant moment of discovery but through a chain of inference; for forty years, scientists have debated whether there is anything to detect and whether it has yet been detected. Sociologist Harry Collins has been tracking the progress of this research since 1972, interviewing key scientists and delineating the social process of the science of gravitational waves.

Engagingly written and authoritatively comprehensive, Gravity's Shadow explores the people, institutions, and government organizations involved in the detection of gravitational waves. This sociological history will prove essential not only to sociologists and historians of science but to scientists themselves.

Gravity's Shadow: The Search for Gravitational Waves Review

This book covers two related stories, each fascinating in its own right. It is first of all the definitive account of the controversy surrounding Joe Weber's claimed detection of gravitational waves, told by someone who has met and interviewed all of the leading participants since the origins of the controversy in the 1970s. Weber was a remarkable character whose story is one of considerable pathos and Collins gives a sympathetic and incisive account of his career and its ramifications that no one else is qualified to give.

The second part of the book covers the dramas that shaped the more recent efforts to detect gravitational waves, a remarkable story with important insights into the way big science projects evolve, sometimes to the point of near implosion. I was a graduate student at Caltech while some of these events occured, and was later a colleague of Collins while he conducted many of his interviews, and can only say that he does an amazing story full justice. As readers of the Golem will know he has a clear, direct style of writing which carries the reader along through a long book, partly for the intrinsic interest of the material, and partly for the engaging style. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in physics.

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