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    Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space
    Unavailable
    Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space
    Unavailable
    Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space
    Audiobook7 hours

    Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space

    Written by Janna Levin

    Narrated by Janna Levin

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The authoritative story of the headline-making discovery of gravitational waves-by an eminent theoretical astrophysicist and award-winning writer.

    From the author of How the Universe Got Its Spots and A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, the epic story of the scientific campaign to record the soundtrack of our universe.

    Black holes are dark. That is their essence. When black holes collide, they will do so unilluminated. Yet the black hole collision is an event more powerful than any since the origin of the universe. The profusion of energy will emanate as waves in the shape of spacetime: gravitational waves. No telescope will ever record the event; instead, the only evidence would be the sound of spacetime ringing. In 1916, Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, his top priority after he proposed his theory of curved spacetime. One century later, we are recording the first sounds from space, the soundtrack to accompany astronomy's silent movie.

    In Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space, Janna Levin recounts the fascinating story of the obsessions, the aspirations, and the trials of the scientists who embarked on an arduous, fifty-year endeavor to capture these elusive waves. An experimental ambition that began as an amusing thought experiment, a mad idea, became the object of fixation for the original architects-Rai Weiss, Kip Thorne, and Ron Drever. Striving to make the ambition a reality, the original three gradually accumulated an international team of hundreds. As this audiobook was written, two massive instruments of remarkably delicate sensitivity were brought to advanced capability. As the audiobook draws to a close, five decades after the experimental ambition began, the team races to intercept a wisp of a sound with two colossal machines, hoping to succeed in time for the centenary of Einstein's most radical idea. Janna Levin's absorbing account of the surprises, disappointments, achievements, and risks in this unfolding story offers a portrait of modern science that is unlike anything we've seen before.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 29, 2016
    ISBN9780735209879
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      What could be an exceptionally difficult concept for the layman and non- scientifically trained mind,she made easy to understand.
      A real tribute to science and those unheralded incredible minds that have paved the way for future more recognizable accomplishment to the general public.
      A real tribute to the men and woman who believed sufficiently to pursue their dream, knowing that the outcome possibly would not be realized during their tenure on the project.

      The author I would imagine of necessity must be a scientist in her own right, very cleverly and beautifully captures the tenacity, the inner inherent tensions and frustrations to this multi billion (over time) scientific experiment. How they rose above almost insurmountable obstacles at times..... Managing to convince those necessary to pursue their goals.

      Wonderful that it ends well!