'LIGO' - Director's Cut

Les Guthman's director's cut of his "LIGO" documentary. It includes a full chapter with Kip Thorne and Alessandra Buonnano on the cosmology of LIGO not seen in the original version, and a deeper history of the long 50-year search for these once-elusive messengers from the "Warped Side" of the universe: gravitational waves.

Image credit: GW190412 simulation by Nils L. Fischer and Harald P. Pfeiffer,
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, with simulations by the
Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration.

[jonrutherford]

The captioning is the best I've seen anywhere: human-written, precise, and even synchronized with the speakers (no lag). There are millions of people who depend to one degree or another on closed captioning, yet easily 90% of all streamed media ignore this fact. I'm very grateful for the thoughtful and realistic approach of the producers here. Thank you!

[bennylloyd-willner]

I'm so happy that there are some documentaries produced with the volume of the background music set to actually be in the background and not drowning the speech👌

[raymondswenson]

I live only 30 minutes drive from the Hanford LIGO. They do monthly public tours. And if you have a group of 15 or more, you can schedule a private tour. I did that with my grandkids. Fantastic! Worth a visit to Richland, Washington on the Columbia River. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is another great center of science research here. And then there is the B Reactor, the first operational reactor on earth, created for the Manhattan Project, part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, and the Park Service gives tours. Very worthwhile. John Wheeler who taught Kip Thorne, did much of the theoretical work behind LIGO also worked on the B Reactor.

[SmogandBlack]

At the time they won the Nobel Prize, Kip Thorne was 77 years old, Rai Weiss was 85 and Barry Barish 81. And I'm so happy that everything went well and they could see their work receive the honours it deserved. They all are alive and well today, BTW 😊... a great day to everybody.

[PlakaDelos]

It's 5:15 in the morning and I couldn't sleep. I started watching this video and I was enraptured. I've always been fascinated by science and have, since I retired, concentrated on learning about fields that interest me. Physics has been my big challenge (mainly the math) but this video opened up an entirely new way of thinking. I was impressed not only by the concepts but the clear presentation of the approaches taken to prove those concepts was fascinating. So, I am saving this video to watch again because I know that there is much I missed or didn't understand and I want to understand. Thank you.

[dougbates]

The years of hard graft that went into conceiving, designing, funding and building these amazing precision instruments is a laudable story of scientific endeavour…. And the culmination of that endeavour in making the first actual records of the passing of a gravitiational wave is one of the greatest achievements in physics, eminently worthy of the Nobel Prize award. Bravo to everyone who worked on this wonderful project. Today, 9 years since the first groundbreaking event, the LIGO instruments have recorded dozens of gravitiational wave events and profoundly advanced our understanding of cosmology.

[genburke]

Bravo! ....what a beautiful film. The signing of the book with all the signatures of earlier Nobel winners took my breath away. Great documentary.

[ColinJarrett]

Hells bells I needed this documentary. In a troubled world, this reminded me of the purity and nobility of scientific enquiry.

[AtomicPunk]

The level of brilliance required to build LIGO is staggering. It requires so much engineering knowledge in mechanical, electrical, materials, optics, chemistry; even civil engineering.

[savagebolt]

Thanks for the wonderful video, and a huge thanks for not ruining it with crappy background music.
I don't know why some people are compelled to add annoying background music throughout their videos.

[kincho]

Thanks for an excellent documentary of the awesome LIGO instrument.

[jerrycornelius]

Thanks for this release - such an excellent tale of scientific endeavour, now with more of my favourite characters - in HD! ❤

[aresaurelian]

I am pleased that humanity liked the results. It gives inspiration for further research and development. And there are bigger surprises.

[timothyconnally]

It’s amazing to see the universe through the lens of gravity! It’s also ironic the LIGO uses light to detect the waves of one the few non light mediums in order to shed new “light” on science.

[ksnapper]

Beautiful !!!! Thank you for all of your hard and many, many years of work and determination. 😀

[kereti]

the utter beauty and also the sheer madness of human beings and what we are able to do

[hydropotamis]

I can't believe that this awesome movie is free! I love all you smart nerds! I'm a hobbyist physicist.

[LouAlvis]

What an ADVENTURE! what a moment in science history! what a heroic achievement by many hundreds of Scientists, living and dead.
this soundtrack was such a nice touch."
BRAVO to the LIGO teams

[Astronetics]

Thank you for posting this and sharing.

[BestFitSquareChannel]

I saw the original version. Now this! A thrill, privilege, inspiration. The humanity, humility, generosity on display an explicit presentation of the best our species produces. Thank you one and all involved in bringing this extraordinary story to light. Best wishes. 🌞🤸🏽‍♂️🫶🏼🖖🏼🥂✌🏼