A nudge from God

LAST Friday, the entire world was astounded as scientists in the US announced that, using two gigantic, incredibly sensitive instruments buried underground in locations almost 3,000 kilometers apart, they had detected ‘gravitational waves’ – minute ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago but until now only existing in theory.

In much the same way as objects moving through air or water will create ripples, mass moving in space can create ripples in the very fabric of space-time. This was a prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity; while physicists have been fairly confident for about the last 40 years that the theory is correct, until now proof through direct observation has been elusive.