'By detecting gravitational waves we can hear the universe'
Jessie Wingard
May 31, 2017
German physicist Karsten Danzmann receives the Körber Prize for Science this Thursday for his work on gravitational waves. He talked to DW about how to research them further.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/CALTECH-JPL
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DW: When it comes to gravitational waves - was Einstein right?
Karsten Danzmann: Of course he was right. We didn't really have a doubt about that. Still, it was a big challenge to directly listen to the universe and not just indirectly, or just look at the universe with our eyes. For thousands of years we have only looked at the universe, but the sense was missing. Now, finally, with detecting gravitational waves we are also able to hear the universe and this whole new sense opens the dark side of the universe that we've never had any glimpse of before.
There has been a lot of research done on gravitational waves here on Earth. Are there plans to start researching them in space?
Certainly. Just like light comes to us in all kinds of colors, so do gravitational waves come to us in all kinds of frequencies. In the high-frequency range, frequencies that our ears could hear, you listen to the universe and what you hear is the light stuff, things that have a low mass like stars or intermediate black holes. But all the heavy things move very slowly, like super massive black holes for example. That slow movement is "hidden" on Earth because everything here moves. Leaves fall from the trees for example and that shakes the gravitational wave detector, which cannot be shielded. So, for that reason you have to go into space. And we have been working for many, many years on a space mission that will detect the low frequency gravitational waves.
Körber Prize winner Karsten DanzmannImage: Körber Foundation/Friedrun Reinhold
Another reason you have to go to space? Because for the lower frequencies you need big ears, like you need big instruments to make the low tones. So, a contrabass is big and a violin is small and the same holds true for the gravitational wave detectors and sources. That's why we go into space and build a big ear that's millions of kilometers large. The technological precursor is flying right now. It's marvelously successful and the full mission will maybe fly in fifteen years
Germany, it is often said, is really contributing to the field of international research on gravitational waves. As the discoverers of gravitational waves, what role does Germany play at the moment when it comes to international research?
Germany has been a pioneer in experimental gravitational wave research from day one. Even half a century ago when there were one, two or three people in the world trying to experimentally detect gravitational waves - German researches were among the pioneers. They have always been on the forefront of the field, even at the time when the proposals for the big detectors were brought forward, at the beginning of the 1990s. In fact, we had teamed up with a British team to propose a detector in Europe at the same time that the LIGO [the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in the US, the ed.]proposal was brought forward.
It just happened that historically something more important happened than building big gravitational wave detectors and that was German re-unification. That meant that at the time there was no money available for a new project in fundamental science, whereas in the US the LIGO project made big progress. That's why the big detectors that have made the detections are now in the US.
But what we could continue to work on in Germany is technology. Researching the technology that goes into the big detectors is something you can do without needing hundreds of millions of Euros. You only need a few million. For a lot of people that's still a lot of money, but in science a few millions is pocket change. So, we continued to do what we knew how to do and that was to develop the technology. It makes us very happy that many of our technologies are at the heart of advanced LIGO now and have really helped make this instrument into what it is.
Karsten Danzmann is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hanover, Germany. He will be awarded the Körber Prize for Science, which comes with a prize purse of 750,000 Euros, on September 7.
Blinded by science: Headlines of 2016
There was no shortage of science headlines throughout 2016. Researchers made experimental plasma for nuclear fusion, detected gravitational waves and found substances to fight hardened germs, among other things.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Push for plasma power
Early on this year, chancellor Angela Merkel pressed the button to start up the Wendelstein 7-X device. A small amount of hydrogen was injected into the device that was then heated up by microwave into a plasma of between 10 and 100 million degrees Celsius. The creation and manipulation of plasmas would be a step on the road to harnessing nuclear fusion as a safe and clean source of energy.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Wüstneck
Not at all cool
There was no nuclear fusion this time around. The goal was instead to put test out the institute's "stellerator." Such devices are used to hold superheated plasmas, and manipulate them using magnetic fields. In December, scientists reported that they had been successful in doing so to a high level of precision.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Particularly good with numbers
Also up-and-running earlier this year was a high performance computer center at the Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt. It's job will be to churn over all the data produced that the new particle accelerator FAIR will produce in years to come.
Image: HA Hessen Agentur/Thomas Ernsting
A moment of some gravity
There was a sensational success for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in February, when its scientists recorded a chirping sound - the sound of gravitational waves. Such ripples in the fabric of space-time were predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago. It was only the second time they had ever been heard.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/CALTECH-JPL
Winging its way home
On July 26th, the solar airplane Solar Impulse II ended its journey of more than a year, reaching Abu Dhabi. The plane took off from there in March the previous year, flying around the globe in an eastern direction. The flight wasn't without problems, solar-charged batteries had to be completely replaced during the plane's crossing of the Pacific.
Image: Getty Images/Solar Impulse2/J. Revillard
Setback for the Tesla
A fatal accident involving a Tesla car in Florida in May overshadowed the rapid advance of autonomous and semiautonomous vehicles. The deceased "driver" had apparently put his car into autopilot mode and was watching a Harry Potter movie. The car's systems had failed to spot a large white 18-wheel truck crossing the highway.
Image: Reuters/Courtesy Robert VanKavelaar
The Olympic challenge of Zika
The Olympic games in Brazil appeared to be under threat with the spread of the Zika virus, which is linked with microcephaly, a syndrome that leads to an underdeveloped cranium in newborns. The virus is transmitted by mosquito and expanded across the tropics with unexpected speed. The World Health Organization called a global emergency and, by November, things appeared to be calming down.
Image: Reuters/O. Rivas
An agent to fight superbugs?
Tübingen researchers announced in July that they had isolated an active substance called lugdunin from bacteria that normally settle in the nose. The chemical appears to stop disease-causing bacteria from growing there. It's though that lugdunin might even be of use against the hospital superbug MRSA.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/NIAID
Smart little devil
Australian researchers looked closely at the milk produced by Tasmanian devil mothers and discovered highly effective proteins that also act against multi-resistant bacteria. Marsupials need such defenses because their babies grow in pouches that are often full of bacteria. Might it also be of use to humans?
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Ralston
A ghost under threat?
It was in March, when researchers discovered this small octopus off the coast of Hawaii. They christened him Casper - after the ghost cartoon character. By December, marine biologists had found out more. The octopod lays its eggs on mineral nodules on the deep sea floor. Too bad, then, that manganese and other substances present in the nodules are becoming increasingly important for industry.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/NOAA Office Of Ocean Exploration
Molecules to stop bovine burping
Cows burp out methane gas, and it's become common knowledge that this is one of the most substantial contributors to global warming. One molecule - 3-nitrooxypropanol - can help curb that, according to scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology. The substance prevents a buildup of methane in cows' stomachs and also improves the uptake of nutrients.
Image: BR
Fine tuning of feathers
This falcon, who goes by the name Socrates, was allowed to prove his skills in a wind tunnel at the University of the German Federal Armed Forces in Munich. High-speed cameras filmed his movements, and researchers scrutinized the images. It's probably a long way off, but might our aircraft one day fly with feathered wings?
Image: picture alliance/dpa/S. Hoppe
Eating themselves alive
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for the discovery of an important self-healing mechanism in our cells. Without autophagy - "self-eating" - cells could not renew themselves. Yoshinori Ohsumi, from Japan, discovered the mechanism.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Nackstrand
Bagels and the quantum world?
Three theoretical physicists share this year's Nobel Prize. They investigated strange phenomena that occur in the atomic world and which may make quantum computing possible one day. The concepts involved are quite abstract, and are concerned with how many holes objects have. Or something like that. We're not entirely sure.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Lane
A nice little runaround
Even if you're a fan of small cars, this may be going too far. The scientists Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa have made possible nanocars that operate on a molecular level. They can use light as fuel. The three received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their efforts.
