Gravitational waves are vibrations in the fabric of spacetime. They are among the most exciting phenomena in the universe because they are generated by exotic processes such as collisions between black holes and even in the moment of creation itself, the Big Bang.
So finding a way to study them is a big deal for astronomers.
But there's a problem. Gravitational waves squeeze and stretch space as they travel but their effects are tiny. Physicists calculate that the waves passing through Earth are changing the distance between London and New York by about the width of a uranium nucleus.
That makes them tough to spot, although he current generation of gravitational detectors ought to be able to detect this level of change (unless somebody's got their numbers badly wrong).
Nevertheless, nobody has spotted a gravitational wave directly.
So a new way to find these beasts will surely be of interest. Today Armen Gulian at Chapman University in Maryland and a few pals outline a new type of detector that has the potential to be much smaller than today's behemoths.
To read more, click here.