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A review by davidjordan
Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space by Janna Levin
4.0
The author, a theoretical cosmologist, describes the event that is at the heart of this worthwhile volume with these words: "Somewhere in the universe two black holes collide, an event as powerful as any since the origin of the universe, outputting more than a trillion times the power of a billion Suns. That profusion of energy emanates from the coalescing holes in a purely gravitational form, as waves in the shape of spacetime, as gravitational waves."
Professor Levin's book is the tale of the scientists who theorized and developed a means for detecting these gravitational waves, first predicted by Albert Einstein just over one hundred years ago. It is an intriguing and entertaining account of the creation of one of the largest and most sophisticated (but startlingly theoretically simple) projects in the last half century. Levin's particular gift is communicating for the reader the fascinating personalities and eccentricities of the scientists involved with the creation of the gravitational wave observatories.
A satisfying read on its own, but a good complementary story is "The Particle at the End of the Universe" by Sean Carroll, the story of the creation of the facility which detected the Higgs Boson particle.
Professor Levin's book is the tale of the scientists who theorized and developed a means for detecting these gravitational waves, first predicted by Albert Einstein just over one hundred years ago. It is an intriguing and entertaining account of the creation of one of the largest and most sophisticated (but startlingly theoretically simple) projects in the last half century. Levin's particular gift is communicating for the reader the fascinating personalities and eccentricities of the scientists involved with the creation of the gravitational wave observatories.
A satisfying read on its own, but a good complementary story is "The Particle at the End of the Universe" by Sean Carroll, the story of the creation of the facility which detected the Higgs Boson particle.