David Blair / Paul Davies / Ron Burman
Einstein gave us a vision of a new universe in which time and space arewarped and rippling in response to everything else in the universe. Vastbursts of energy in the form of ripples of pure and empty space are passingthrough us at light speed, carrying messages about a dying universe andabout the places where space, time and matter all cease to exist.It took a century of struggle to understand Einstein’s prophesy. Einsteindoubted his predictions, and eventually, it took 1000 physicists to detecthis greatest prophecy of all, gravitational waves.The definitive proof of Einstein’s new universe began with donkey trains andsailing ships at Wallal in 1922. A century of struggle by an array of eccentricand determined scientists brought us to the era of gravitational waveastronomy where our detectors, like bionic ears, have given us a brand newsense, an ability to hear across the vast scale of the universe.This book tells the international story from an Australian perspective, fromthe Wallal Expedition, instigated by Alexander Ross of the University of WesternAustralia, to the Australia-wide team that participated in the discoveryof gravitational waves and continues to lead national efforts in gravitationalwave discovery.
