More Tax Dollars for Gravitational Sinkhole

Wired is very excited about new funding for gravitational wave detectors, according to their article Get Ready For Gravitational Waves All Day, Every Day. This follows up on results from 2015 that allegedly proved the existence of gravitational waves, which are predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. The National Science Foundation and its UK equivalent have granted $35 million to expand the project.

The detectors are designed to find tiny movements induced by gravitational waves as they pass by the earth. Searching for nearly imperceptible movement in a dynamic place like earth - with its shifting tectonics, weather, and the like - means their measurements are very noisy. How do they remove the noise? That is a good question. And once noise is removed, how do they determine that what's left is actually a gravitational wave? They compare it to a catalog they've made of some twenty thousand hypothetical gravitational wave signatures from various proposed astronomical events. So the first signal from 2015 was said to match the theoretical scenario where two theoretical binary black holes collapsed into one. Which brings us back to the question of noise cancelation. How do you know you've canceled the noise good? Well, if what you're left with looks like one of the twenty thousand signatures, then you've canceled the noise good. The problem with the study is it was constructed to have a high chance of success whether or not gravitational waves really exist. It's just like how the global warming advocates operate: all observations can be construed to support the theory.

So, if gravitational waves have already been "proven," then what is left to fund?

Researchers are hoping this gravitational wave data will help them map the universe in richer detail than ever before. That’s because the signals provide information about the universe that is inaccessible via telescopes. In fact, physicists often liken gravitational waves to sound: If telescopes are the eyes on the universe, gravitational wave detectors are the ears. With more sensory information about black holes, neutron stars, and supernovae, researchers have a new data stream with which to study the expansion of the universe and the nature of dark matter, for example.

They'll use it to inspect black holes, neutron stars, supernovae, expansion of the universe, and dark matter. All fictional! [Well, supernovae are real, but the supernovae theory is not. By their explanation - a feeder binary star secretes material into its companion until it reaches critical mass and undergoes a tremendous nuclear explosion - supernovae should not recur in the same star, but it has been observed a number of times.] Will study of gravitational waves guide scientists to abandon flawed models and formulate better ones? No. They'll continue to discover whatever the grants pay them to discover.