Einstein's Unfinished Symphony: Listening to the Sounds of Space-Time

Rating:
Summary: Catching the Waves
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A Tribute to Joseph Weber, the LIGO project and Much More
Review: 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 of spacecrafts.

The book is well balanced between theory and experiment, between science and sociology, and between anecdotes and stories of serious pursuit. As for anecdotes, there is one about the fact that the term "black hole" caused a problem for a while in France. Read the book for the reason. This is a masterpiece of nonfiction, and will absorb the mind of both a scientist and a layperson.

Rating:
Summary: An Absolutely Wonderful Book
Review: 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...

Rating:
Summary: Never thought two seconds about gravity waves?
Review: 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...

Rating:
Summary: Premature book
Review: The struggle for the direct detection of gravity waves has continued for some years, and to date the search has been totally unsuccessful despite the tremendous investment of effort in this area. I found this book's documention of this quest somewhat interesting. However, I found the subject of this book somewhat unfulfilling because it has no punchline. I would have waited for the direct detection of gravity waves before writing a book like this.

Rating:
Summary: Premature book
Review: The struggle for the direct detection of gravity waves has continued for some years, and to date the search has been totally unsuccessful despite the tremendous investment of effort in this area. I found this book's documention of this quest somewhat interesting. However, I found the subject of this book somewhat unfulfilling because it has no punchline. I would have waited for the direct detection of gravity waves before writing a book like this.

Rating:
Summary: An important preview of things to come
Review: This book provides a rare opportunity for non-scientists to understand an important scientific advance before it happens.

Bartusiak provides readers with a thorough history of the decades of theorizing, organizing, and development that have led to the current generation of gravitational-wave observatories eagerly awaiting the first detection of the space-distorting pulses predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity nearly a century ago.

From my point of view, the book presents a bit more of the history and politics of gravitational-wave research, and a bit less of the science, than I might like. Still, Bartusiak tells a very important story in great detail. She clearly did her homework; the book is full of the kind of details that come only from visiting sites and interviewing key players face-to-face.

I thought that the most important point Bartusiak made did not come until at least two-thirds of the way through the book. She finally made it clear that the key problem in detecting gravitational waves rippling through spacetime is isolating the detector from every other influence, insulating and quieting it to the point that a change in length no larger than a fraction of the diameter of an atom can be detected. That's why, when gravitational waves are finally detected, it will be a great technical triumph as well as a vindication of Einstein's theory and a powerful new window on the universe.

On the whole I'd describe Bartusiak's writing as clear and well organized, but not inspiring. However, she did come up with one delightful metaphor. In describing the impending collision of two black holes, one of the predicted sources of detectable ripples in spacetime, she wrote, "Picture two black holes slowly circling each other, like a pair of sumo wrestlers warily checking each other out in the ring." I would have liked the book even more if Bartusiak had provided more imaginative writing like that, and more science as well.

Still, if you want to know what the first detection of gravitational waves will mean, and the enormous amount of effort that has gone into this impending discovery, _Einstein's Unfinished Symphony_ is well worth reading.

Robert Adler, author of _Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation_ (Wiley & Sons, 2002); and _Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome_ (Wiley & Sons, 2004).


Rating:
Summary: A focus on the history and physics of gravity waves
Review: This focus on the history and physics of gravity waves - vibrations in space-time, Einstein's unfinished last theory - provides lively insights which translate complex physics to easy associations. From how gravity waves react in the universe to their applications to modern science, Einstein's Unfinished Symphony uses the metaphor of music to consider their idea and applications.

Rating:
Summary: An Absolutely Wonderful Book
Review: 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!