Book Reviewed: Black hole blues and Other Songs from Outer Space by Janna Levin

An odyssey for the Kiss of spacetime

This book narrates the building of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and the detection of the of gravitational waves in 2015. It describes the determination and perseverance of a team physicists dedicated to discovering the existence gravitational waves or spacetime ripples that travel at the speed of light. Spacetime ripples was predicted by Einstein in 1915 but over the past 100 years skepticism existed among cosmologists. The cost of building a machine was astronomical and some physicists questioned the wisdom of such a vast and unwarranted expenditure. But to understand the nature of physical reality and the very fabric of our universe, this effort was necessary. We come across the works of three major players in this odyssey, Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne, and Ron Drever

Columbia University Professor Janna Levin is an author of several books and as a writer and a cosmologist she has a unique style of describing the excitement, joy and drama behind this important discovery in our lifetime. She works closely with physicists, writers, artists and musicians in an ever-expanding role of a scientist interested in art and beauty of creation. Despite her efforts, for a casual reader, the writing may not generate enthusiasm since the story is about the efforts of people who contributed to the success of a physics experiment. The fact that this is the costliest project the National Science Foundation (NSF) has ever funded, exceeding $1 billion, you would have to be very interested in physics and cosmology to appreciate this work.