Einstein's Unfinished Symphony: The Story of a Gamble, Two Black Holes, and a New Age of Astronomy

by Marcia Bartusiak

Book Overview

In a handful of observatories around the world, scientists are waiting, and listening. Their quest: to be the first to detect gravitational waves, infinitesimal quakes that stretch and compress... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300223390
• ISBN13: 9780300223392
• Release Date: June 2017
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great review of the history of gravitational wave physics

The book takes you on a journey through the history of physics since Einstein published his theories of relativity. Sufficient background information is provided without the mathematical details that might handicap those of us in other fields. Ms. Bartusiak does a fine job of explaining the many intricacies of relativity and gravitational wave physics in a clear and concise manner (for the physics layperson). A detailed account of the testing of Einstein's theories during his lifetime and over the decades since he left us is provided. Einstein's insight was phenomenal (at least as far as I am concerned, being a non-physicist/engineer). I'm still amazed by the leap that he was able to take, thus changing physics forever. Not since Newton has anyone changed the face of our perception of the physical world around us (the universe's many objects and the evolution of the concept of space-time). The majority of the text is devoted to the decades of research and development over gravitational wave detection. The concerted effort in the field is actually quite phenomenal. Since gravitational waves have never officially been detected, one might surmise that the book can't be very exciting. On the contrary, the history of the development of the technology for modern day test detection systems is very fascinating. I learned a great deal about the basic premises of relativity physics without having to take three or four courses in calculus. I was actually quite thrilled to find a book so easy to follow. I will be rejoycing for Einstein (and all of humankind) when the headlines read, "for the first time, ripples through space-time have been recorded across the globe". What a glorious day for science. I can't wait!!!

An Absolutely Wonderful Book

This is an amazing book for both its historical and scientific content. The prose is clear and engaging; the subject matter, i.e., the attempts at detecting of gravity waves, is fascinating. Although gravity waves have never been knowingly and officially detected as yet, projects to build expensive apparatus to detect them are actually getting funded. This is clearly tribute to the confidence that the scientific community has on Albert Einstein and the General Theory of Relativity. This is a great book that deserves to be read by all!

Never thought two seconds about gravity waves?

Neither had I... Now, as the New York Times Book Review states, "When a gravity wave is first detected..." (I) "...will feel like a participant in the great event." Why should you care? When gravity waves become detectable, we humans will open a brand new chapter into the discovery of our universe, and subsequently ourselves. We may eventually find the universe is a great huge pond with spacetime ripples originating from infinite sources. We may finally see the big picture, a bit of celestial music, and direct evidence of the most incalculable event in our universe, the collision and coalescence of two black holes. The thought of this type of event being recorded for human ears is exciting and provocative... I hope I am a lucky participant.The supporting cast, are the scientists from many countries, who seek to be the first to find and record a gravity wave. This is an obvious Nobel Prize event, so the stakes are high... On the other hand, virtually all of them realize they are laying the groundwork for (perhaps) future generations. There is a very good chance that none of the current players will even be around when a gravity wave is captured on it's travel to infinity. On the other hand, future generations will be infinitely indebted to these pioneers, and us common astronomy buffs will be richer for their selflessness.Marcia Bartusiak wrote a fine book for the rest of us... I look forward to reading more from her, and recommend this to anyone with even a passing interest. Sure, there is no punch line yet, but when there is, I will 'get it'... Will you?Finally, what can be said about Albert Einstein... A towering genius that looked at our physical world, pulled back a great obscuration, and let us all see the light. I will always be in awe...

A Tribute to Joseph Weber, the LIGO project and Much More

In this book Marcia Bartusiak, an excellent science journalist, writes about scientists' endeavors to detect gravitational waves coming from deep space. The existence of gravity waves was predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, and they are considered to have the frequency falling into the audio range, but no one has ever listened to them. Thus the author elegantly entitled this book "Einstein's Unfinished Symphony." Each chapter also has the title related to music. For example, the chapter about the discovery of the Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar, indirect evidence for gravity waves, is cogently entitled "Pas De Deux."Bartusiak's sentences are also rhythmic like music, especially in the earliest chapters, so that the reader comfortably learns about Einstein's discovery of the origin of gravity and Renaissance in relativity made theoretically by John Archibald Wheeler and experimentally by Robert Dicke. Wheeler is cited to have explained general relativity in one clear sentence, "Mass tells space-time how to curve, and space-time tells mass how to move."The pioneer of experimental work directly to catch gravity waves was Joseph Weber. He published his first results in 1969, claiming evidence for observation of gravity waves based on coincident signals from two bar detectors. Unfortunately, by the middle of 1970s nearly everyone came to agree that Weber was mistaken. Bartusiak writes that Weber had however created a momentum that could not be stopped. Weber died on 30 September 2000, just a few months before the publication of this book. Thus the book partially happened to become one of the earliest tributes to Weber. His first bar detector is now shown in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C.Then comes the central story of this book, the construction, improvements and prospects of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). LIGO is a gigantic instrument system placed in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington. Its construction started as a collaborative project, involving dozens of scientists and the cost of more than $370 million. Among those scientists, Rainer Weiss is considered to be the founding father of the effort. His career began with a determination to get rid of the noises in a hi-fi system, only to transfer that interest ironically or rather wonderfully to reducing the noises that could mask a gravity wave.Each piece of LIGO's detector includes a marvel of engineering. LIGO's "classy" physics and the virgin territory of possible gravity wave astronomy are gathering young physicists from around the world. Potential sources of gravity waves cataloged so far by Kip Thorne's Caltech team and other theoretical groups around the world are many and varied from black hole collisions to neutron-star mountains. The author tells us all the details of these in a quite understandable manner. She also describes gravitational research in countries other than United States and projects by the use

Catching the Waves

Galileo could drop balls of various weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to investigate gravity, but the latest in gravity research, finding gravity waves, is high cost, big science, it is enormously complicated, and no one even knows if it will find anything. _Einstein's Unfinished Symphony_ is the story of LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, a series of facilities in different places that will use lasers traveling in vacuum tubes that are over two miles long to detect any gravity waves as they stretch and compress us when they flow by. Catching a gravity wave would be the last major experimental confirmation of Einstein's ideas. The problem is that any gravity wave effect is unimaginably small, thousands of times smaller than an atomic nucleus. Bartusiak has interviewed many of the scientists involved in the project, and explains their work in good but not numbing detail. Her explanations of the weirdness of Relativity are excellent. Her examples and descriptions are good fun to read, and a model of clear scientific writing for the public.What will LIGO find? That's something like asking Galileo what he would see in the telescope before he looked through it. LIGO will not be a one-task apparatus, but will be more like an observatory. The biggest game it is after is black holes; after all the theory, we still have only circumstantial evidence that black holes exist, and this could be a way of getting hard data. It would be very nice to see two of them collide, or whirl around each other before the inevitable collision in thousands of years. Neutron star collisions and supernovas are targets, too. We are going to have a new instrument and we don't know what we are going to find; that's an exciting scientific stance. _Einstein's Unfinished Symphony_ communicates that excitement, and those who read it will be well prepared to understand the upcoming results.