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Published: 12th October 2004
ISBN: 9780226113784
Number Of Pages: 864
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According to the theory of relativity, we are constantly bathed in gravitational radiation. When stars explode or collide, a portion of their mass becomes energy that disturbs the very fabric of the space-time continuum like ripples in a pond. But proving the existence of these waves has been difficult; the cosmic shudders are so weak that only the most sensitive instruments can be expected to observe them directly. Fifteen times during the last thirty years scientists have claimed to have detected gravitational waves, but so far none of those claims have survived the scrutiny of the scientific community. "Gravity's Shadow" chronicles the forty-year effort to detect gravitational waves, while exploring the meaning of scientific knowledge and the nature of expertise.
Gravitational wave detection involves recording the collisions, explosions, and trembling of stars and black holes by evaluating the smallest changes ever measured. Because gravitational waves are so faint, their detection will come not in an exuberant moment of discovery but through a chain of inference; for forty years, scientists have debated whether there is anything to detect and whether it has yet been detected. Sociologist Harry Collins has been tracking the progress of this research since 1972, interviewing key scientists and delineating the social process of the science of gravitational waves.
Engagingly written and authoritatively comprehensive, "Gravity's Shadow" explores the people, institutions, and government organizations involved in the detection of gravitational waves. This sociological history will prove essential not only to sociologists and historians of science but to scientists themselves.
| Preface | |
| Acknowledgments Common Acronyms in Gravitational Wave Research | |
| Introduction Two Kinds of Space-Time | |
| A La Recherche Des Ondes Perdues | |
| The Start of a New Science | |
| From Idea to Experiment | |
| What Are Gravitational Waves? | |
| The First Published | |
| The Reservoir of Doubt | |
| The First Experiments by Others | |
| Joe Weber's Findings Begin to Be Rejected in the Constitutive Forum | |
| Joe Weber Fights Back | |
| The Consensus Is Formed | |
| An Attempt to Break the Regress: The Calibration of Experiments | |
| Forgotten Waves | |
| How Waves Spread | |
| Two New Technologies | |
| The Start of Cryogenics | |
| Nautilus | |
| Nautilus, November 1996 to June 1998 | |
| The Spheres | |
| The Start of Interferometry | |
| Caltech Enters the Game | |
| Bar wars | |
| The Science of the Life after Death of Room-Temperature Bars | |
| Scientific Institutions and Life after Death | |
| Room-Temperature Bars and the Policy Regress | |
| Scientific Cultures | |
| Resonant Technology and the National Science Foundation Review | |
| Ripples and Conferences | |
| Three More Conferences and a Funeral | |
| The Downtrodden Masses | |
| The Funding of LIGO and Its Consequences | |
| The Interferometers And The Interferometeers-From Small Science To Big Science | |
| Moving Technology: What Is in a Large Interferometer? | |
| Moving Earth: The Sites | |
| Moving People: From Small Science to Big Science | |
| The Beginning of Coordinated Science | |
| The Drever Affair | |
| The End of the Skunk Works | |
| Regime 3: The Coordinators | |
| Mechanism versus Magic | |
| The 40-Meter Team versus the New Management, Continued | |
| Regime 4 (and 5): The Collaboration | |
| Becoming A New Science | |
| Pooling Data: Prospects and Problems | |
| International Collaboration among the Interferometer Groups | |
| When Is Science? The Meaning of Upper Limits | |
| Science, Scientists, And Sociology | |
| Coming On Air: The Study and Science | |
| Methodology as the Meeting of Two Cultures: The Study, Scientists, and the Public | |
| Final Reflections: The Study and Sociology | |
| Joe Weber: A Personal and Methodological Note 000 Coda: January 2004 | |
| Appendices | |
| What Is Small? | |
| Gravitational Waves, Gravitational Radiation, and Gravity Waves: A Note on Terminology | |
| Roger Babson's Essay, "Gravity-Our Enemy Number One" | |
| 1 Colonial Cringe | |
| 1 The Method | |
| References | |
| Index | |
| Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780226113784
ISBN-10: 0226113787
Audience:
Professional
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 864
Published: 12th October 2004
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: US
Dimensions (cm): 23.2 x 15.1
x 5.72
Weight (kg): 1.19
Edition Number: 2
Earn 224 Qantas Points
on this Book
