Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Black Hole Blues
Black Hole Blues: And Other Songs from Outer Space | Janna Levin
5 posts | 5 read | 31 to read
"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. And, most revealingly, she delves into the lives and fates of the four scientists currently engaged in--and obsessed with--discerning this soundtrack of the universe's history. Levin's account of the surprises, disappointments, achievements, and risks of this unfolding story provides us with a uniquely compelling and intimate portrait of the people and processes of modern science"--
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
mklong
post image
Pickpick

A fascinating peek behind the curtain of the massive, nearly billion dollar and fifty year, conception and implementation of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project. The goal being to observe intergalactic events that we can‘t see, through their sounds instead. Brilliance, personality clashes, scientific disagreements, and a healthy measure of uncertainty that it would ever work, all combine for one heck of a story.

68 likes4 stack adds
quote
meligrosa
post image

blurb
Anitta
post image

#TBR I got caught up in the Broken Earth series, so these two are on hold. Though, I was really looking forward to the new Expanse book.
#feistyfeb
@RealLifeReading

28 likes1 stack add
blurb
strandbookstore
post image

Helloooo Saturday! What's on your #weekendreading list? #BlackHoleBlues #summeratthestrand

ellareads I just finished Station Eleven and I'm picking up The Girl Who Fell from the Sky next. 8y
ej0728 3/4 through End of Watch and then finishing up Modern Lovers. Great weekend!! 8y
JanuarieTimewalker13 I'm reading The Angel's Game and The Wild Girls concurrently. Probably not the best idea, but one is a library book and the other I own and can travel with. The Wild Girls was calling me from the bookshelf, and I had to pick it up! 8y
See All 8 Comments
Procrastireader Just finished Spooky Action At A Distance and started The Coroner's Lunch. 8y
Donna_sBookMinute I'm reading Ajax Penumbra before I pick up Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore tomorrow. 8y
SarahKat84 I'm reading The Butcher's Hook and Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. One kindle and one physical book. Gotta have options! 8y
Jake Working through Fingersmith by Sarah Waters! 8y
IndyHannaJones I'm reading "the Crown's Game" in 90 degree weather. Nothing like a chilly Russian story as I get sunburned! 8y
120 likes2 stack adds8 comments
review
skrishna
post image
Pickpick

I adored this book about the hunt for gravitational waves, a wave created by the colliding of two black holes made up of the fabric of spacetime itself. Sounds romantic, right? This book focuses on personalities and politics alongside the science, making it a fascinating read.

Mamashep Not something I would have picked up on my own but it does sound great! 9y
33 likes11 stack adds1 comment