Interview with LIGO Scientist Dr. Matt Evans (6:22): The recent big news in physics was the announcement of the first direct detection of gravitational waves. The detection was made by the LIGO project, which stands for “Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory”. Reports have said that this is a confirmation of general relativity and a new way to view the universe. To help us understand that, and why this is such a significant achievement, we have on the phone Dr. Matthew Evans, an Assistant Professor of Physics at MIT. Dr. Evans is a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the chair of the Advanced Interferometer Configurations working group. His research focus is on gravitational wave detector instrumentation, and the fundamental sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors.
And here you can see the signal and hear the “chirp” of a graviational wave!
Hosts: Kendra Krueger, Joel Parker
Producer: Kendra Krueger
Engineer: Kendra Krueger
Additional Contributions: Beth Bennett
Executive Producer: Joel Parker
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:10 — 23.0MB)
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An educator and perfomer, Len Barron first developed a piece about Einsteina and Bohr as a one man show, but then decided to evolve the project by enlist the help of 8 grandmothers to tell the story with their own added pizazz. Not only was lively performance produced, but a process and experience was shared. This process was captured by documentary film maker Robin Truesdale in a film coming to the Dairy Center this weekend entitled A Beautiful Equation. Both Robin and Len have joined us today in the studio to tell us more about the film, the process, the scientists and the grandmothers.
