A fascinating account, written in real time, of the unfolding of a
scientific discovery: the first detection of gravitational waves.
Scientists have been trying to confirm the existence of gravitational
waves for fifty years. Then, in September 2015, came a "very interesting
event" (as the cautious subject line in a physicist's email read) that
proved to be the first detection of gravitational waves. In Gravity's
Kiss, Harry Collins--who has been watching the science of gravitational
wave detection for forty-three of those fifty years and has written
three previous books about it--offers a final, fascinating account,
written in real time, of the unfolding of one of the most remarkable
scientific discoveries ever made.
Predicted by Einstein in his theory of general relativity, gravitational
waves carry energy from the collision or explosion of stars. Dying
binary stars, for example, rotate faster and faster around each other
until they merge, emitting a burst of gravitational waves. It is only
with the development of extraordinarily sensitive, highly sophisticated
detectors that physicists can now confirm Einstein's prediction. This is
the story that Collins tells.
Collins, a sociologist of science who has been embedded in the
gravitational wave community since 1972, traces the detection, the
analysis, the confirmation, and the public presentation and the
reception of the discovery--from the first email to the final published
paper and the response of professionals and the public. Collins shows
that science today is collaborative, far-flung (with the physical
location of the participants hardly mattering), and sometimes secretive,
but still one of the few institutions that has integrity built into it.
