First there were optical telescopes. Then radio wave detectors
and X-ray observatories gave researchers new "eyes" with which
to view the cosmos. The next big window to the universe may be
through gravitational waves.  Through a project called LIGO
(Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) -- a joint
effort of the California Institute of Technology, MIT and a
group of about 20 other institutions represented in the LIGO
Scientific Collaboration supported by the National Science
Foundation (NSF) -- scientists expect to "see" the universe in a
fundamentally new way.  Or with a whole new wave. In 1915,
Einstein showed that accelerating masses, such as those
occurring in an exploding star, create gravitational fields that
radiate from their sources much like ripples spreading from a
stone dropped in a lake. These fields, which warp the shape of
space and time and travel at the speed of light, are called
gravitational waves. They are difficult to detect because they
interact so weakly with matter.  By t