The BICEP-2 experiment redefines the cosmos. Quantum gravity, here we come.
We get back from vacation and immediately the brain must go from basic sentience to cosmic cramming, because the BICEP-2 experiment at the South Pole has just found something amazing. Essentially it has detected a signal from the very beginning of the universe, at the moment of inflation.
This discovery will rearrange our understanding of everything. It is probably bigger than the first contact with extraterrestrials.
We’ve been waiting for it since we saw this movie.
Read the Nature special on gravitational waves and cosmic inflation.
Albert Einstein predicted this. Read his paper outlining the basics of relativity, via io9.
The Big Bang happened. Cosmic inflation is real. Gravitational waves are real. Next: Gravitons. Next: Quantum gravity. Next: Multiverses. Next: Time Lord as a viable career.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
March 20th, 2014 at 08:48
I hope with this discovery, Stephen Hawking will finally win the Nobel Prize in Physics. He really, really deserves that one, Your Grace.
March 20th, 2014 at 11:52
No, this goes to Andrei Linde and company. And they should give another posthumous one to Einstein. Stephen Hawking would have to share with Roger Penrose.