Boston Globe reporters Sean Smyth, John Ellement and Eric Moskowitz report that Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss was honored with the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. Weiss explained that LIGO has helped change, “the way you look at the way you fit into the universe. It makes you understand what’s going on all around us in the vastness of the universe.”
Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss has been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work successfully detecting gravitational waves, reports Dennis Overbye for The New York Times. Weiss explained that thanks to LIGO, which is helping usher in a new era of astronomy, “many of us really expect to learn about things we didn’t know about.”
Scientists at the LIGO and Virgo observatories jointly detected the collision of two black holes, reports Alyssa Meyers for The Boston Globe. Meyers writes that Prof. Nergis Mavalvala explained that the detection was unique as it was recorded, “by a combination of US and European detectors for the first time… [and] because it gave scientists a clear look at the geometry of gravitational waves.”
Ethan Siegel writes for Forbes about the first successful joint detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO and Virgo observatories. “With three working detectors observing the Universe simultaneously, we can now pinpoint the locations of these sources as never before,” Siegel explains.
Amina Khan of The Los Angeles Times examines the first joint detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO and Virgo detectors. Khan notes that the LIGO and Virgo systems are currently being updated to increase their sensitivity to a greater search volume. “There are eight times as many objects in that volume,” explains MIT’s David Shoemaker, LIGO’s spokesperson, increasing the chances of finding gravitational wave sources.
The LIGO and Virgo observatories have made their first joint detection of gravitational waves, report Ben Guarino and Sarah Kaplan for The Washington Post. MIT’s David Shoemaker, spokesperson for LIGO, compared the three-detector network for identifying gravitational waves to a camera tripod that allows scientists to zoom in on the waves' source.
New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye writes that the LIGO and Virgo Scientific Collaborations have together detected gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes. Overbye explains that the new Virgo detector, “greatly increases the network’s ability to triangulate the sources of gravitational waves so that optical telescopes can search for any accompanying fireworks in the visible sky.”
Prof. Max Tegmark speaks with Ariel Conn of HuffPost about his new book “Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” “I’m optimistic that we can create a great future with AI,” says Tegmark. “It’s going to require that we really think things through in advance.”
Prof. Max Tegmark speaks with Ira Flatow of PRI’s Science Friday about his new book, “Life 3.0,” which examines how AI might reshape the future. “We should try to create a great future with [technology] by winning this race between the growing power of technology, and the growing wisdom with which we manage it," says Tegmark.
Wall Street Journal reporter Frank Rose reviews Prof. Max Tegmark’s new book, “Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” The book asks reader to ponder the possibility that “a computer program will become not just intelligent but wildly so—and that we humans will find ourselves unable to do anything about it.”
Prof. Max Tegmark speaks to Ian Sample of The Guardian about the likelihood of creating superintelligent AI. “From my perspective as a physicist, intelligence is simply a kind of information processing formed by elementary particles moving around, and there’s no law of physics that says we can’t build machines more intelligent than us,” says Prof. Tegmark.
In an article published by Wired, Natalie Wolchover highlights how Prof. Jeremy England and his colleagues are using computer simulations to test England’s theory that the origin of life is rooted in physics. “The outcomes of both computer experiments appear to back England’s general thesis about dissipation-driven adaptation, though the implications for real life remain speculative.”
UPI reporter Brooks Hays writes that MIT researchers have simulated a tiny motor that can be powered by light. Hays explains that the researchers designed, “a particle that could be powered and manipulated by simple light sources,” adding that the technique could be applied in medicine, in addition to a number of other fields.
MIT researchers have developed a light-based computing system that could enhance deep learning, reports Jesse Dunietz for Scientific American. Future versions fabricated for deep learning, “could provide the same accuracy as the best conventional chips while slashing the energy consumption by orders of magnitude and offering 100 times the speed.”
MIT researchers have developed a computer chip that uses beams of light to mimic neurons, reports Matthew Hutson for Science. Hutson explains that, “such ‘optical neural networks’ could make any application of so-called deep learning—from virtual assistants to language translators—many times faster and more efficient.”