Science

This week’s science picture

Ooh, gravitational waves!

This week’s science picture

Two black holes merged billions of light years away, causing a ripple in the fabric of spacetime big enough to be measured by scientists at the LIGO Collaboration. The results provide further support for Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

The 4km long interferometers at LIGO simultaneously detected a disturbance in their lasers signifying the passing of a massive gravitational wave through the Earth. The measurements suggest the black hole collision released a wave og gravitational energy equal to three times the mass of the sun.

Prof Danzmann (a leading European scientist at LIGO) praised the finding as one of the most important discoveries since the Higgs boson and on par with the discovery of the double helix.

Detecting the waves opens up the Universe to completely new investigations leading to a new era of astronomy.

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An interview with the Imperial student hunger striking for Palestine

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An interview with the Imperial student hunger striking for Palestine

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  On Tuesday 10th June, Imperial Action for Palestine, and Imperial Friends of Palestine, two of the groups protesting the actions of Israel in Gaza, posted an announcement that a student had begun a hunger strike following a meeting with Imperial’s

By Mohammad Majlisi
New data on Imperial professors’ salaries reveals gender and faculty differences

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New data on Imperial professors’ salaries reveals gender and faculty differences

A recent Freedom of Information request has revealed the highest professorial salaries endowed by Imperial are mostly attributed to males and Business School professors. Beyond the outsized numbers of male professors, gender discrepancies in earnings stood out. While the salary distribution for professors of both genders is comparable for pay

By Guillaume Felix