Recommended Reading, Video

Below are some videos and print items related to the U.S. National Science Foundation Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (NSF LIGO) that we recommend to anyone interested in learning more about NSF LIGO and its mission, or about gravitational waves in general.

LIGO Films

• The Advanced LIGO Documentary Project comprises several videos on the history of gravitational-wave science, including the 9-episode documentary series "LIGO: A DISCOVERY THAT SHOOK THE WORLD," which was produced by a collaboration including Caltech, MIT, the LIGO Laboratory, and director Les Guthman.
• LIGO films by Kai Staats, including "LIGO Generations", "LIGO, A Passion for Understanding", and "LIGO Detection".

Educational Videos

• The Invisible Colors of the Universe
  Describes how to detect gravitational waves with the Pulsar Timing Array, Pablo Rosado
• LIGO: On the Front Lines of Space-Time
  An APS-TV video by WebsEdge Education
• Gravitational wave astronomy -- opening a new window on the Universe
  TEDxGlasgow talk by LSC member, Dr. Martin Hendry
• The Search for Gravitational Waves
  New York University Colloquium by LIGO’s Prof. Alan Weinstein

Reading

• Science Summaries: available in many languages, these are condensed and simplified versions of a selection of LIGO's published papers.
• Ripples on a cosmic sea: the search for gravitational waves (David Blair, Geoff McNamara, Perseus Publishing 1997). An early account of the development of gravitational wave detectors written by one of the pioneers. A great introductory read, even though it was published 18 years before LIGO's historic first detection.
• Einstein's Unfinished Symphony: The Story of a Gamble, Two Black Holes, and a New Age of Astronomy. (Marcia Bartusiak, Yale University Press). This updated version of Bartusiak's "Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony: Listening to the Sounds of Space-Time" recounts the long hunt for Einstein’s predicted gravitational waves—and celebrates their recent discovery.
• Gravity’s Kiss (Harry Collins; MIT Press). This book continues the work on gravitational waves that Harry Collins began with Gravity’s Ghost and Gravity’s Shadow. It is written at a very accessible level and serves as an insider account of the discovery of gravitational waves, from the very first email to the first published paper and the response of the public.
• Gravity’s Shadow  (Harry Collins;  University of Chicago Press)
• Gravity's Ghost and Big Dog: Scientific Discovery and Social Analysis in the Twenty-First Century (Harry Collins; University of Chicago Press)
• Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony: Listening to the Sounds of Space-Time  (Marcia Bartusiak;  Berkley Books)
• Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy (Thorne; W. W. Norton & Company, Commonwealth Fund Book Program). Beautifully and accessibly written by LIGO's Kip Thorne.
• Traveling at the Speed of Thought: Einstein and the Quest for Gravitational Waves (Daniel Kennefick; Princeton University Press)
• The Science of Interstellar  (Thorne; W. W. Norton & Company)