News Physics

Trio wins physics Nobel Prize for gravitational wave detection

Prize comes quickly for LIGO masterminds

Weiss, Thorne, Barish

LIGO PIONEERS  Rainer Weiss of MIT (left), and Kip Thorne (middle) and Barry Barish (right), both of Caltech, won the Nobel Prize in physics for their leadership roles in the LIGO experiment.

From left: Bryce Vickmark; Caltech; R. Hahn/Wikimedia Commons

By Emily Conover and Lisa Grossman

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Subtle cosmic vibrations kicked up by swirling black holes have captured the public imagination — and the minds of the physics Nobel Prize committee members, too.