Can you hear black holes collide? (7/3/2008)

A team of gravitational wave researchers from four universities, including the University of Southampton, has been selected to exhibit at the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.

Researchers from the University of Southampton have joined forces with colleagues from the universities of Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow, designers from Milde Science Communication and associates from the Albert Einstein Institute in Potsdam, Germany, to showcase their exciting work looking at Einstein's general theory of relativity, black holes and gravitational waves.

Called Can you hear black holes collide?, the exhibit focuses on the main ideas behind Einstein's relativistic theory of gravity.

The research has been funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, in the UK, and the Max Planck Gesellschaft, in Germany.

Visitors to the Royal Society show will get the chance to discover more about the research through a series of hands-on exhibits.

They will gain an understanding of how space and time are flexible, find out about black holes, and see a demonstration of the technology used to search for gravitational waves.

Visitors can also experience state-of-the-art supercomputer simulations of colliding black holes and take part in a fun game which tests their skills at listening for black hole signals.

The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition is a premier annual showcase for scientific excellence in the UK, and this year just 23 interactive exhibitors have been selected to display their work.

The show runs from 30 June to 3 July at the Royal Society, Carlton House Terrace, in London.

Professor Nils Andersson, from the University of Southampton's School of Mathematics, said: "It is a great honour to be selected to show our exhibit at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.

"This exhibition presents the best of UK science, engineering and technology and we are delighted that our work investigating the gravitational waves from black holes will feature among the prestigious exhibits on display."

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the University of Southampton

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