The 2017 Nobel for Physics was the least surprising of awards. Half went to Rainer Weiss. The other half was shared by Barry C Barish and Kip S Thorne. All three were pioneers of the LIGO-Virgo collaboration that first captured gravitational waves in September 2015.
The award presented a peculiar problem. The prize can’t be shared by more than three people and well over a thousand scientists from 20 countries had been important participants in the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), designing apparatus, capturing and deciphering data.
Weiss designed the basic detector, a laser-based interferometer. Thorne helped scale up the concept and
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