This March on The Curiosity Desk, GBH's daily science show with host Edgar B. Herwick III, MIT scientists dropped by to address the questions: "How close are we to observing the dark universe?" ( Thursday, March 12 episode ) and "Is Earth prepared for asteroids?" ( Thursday, March 26 episode ).
Up first, Prof. Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the MIT School of Science, and Prof. Salvatore Vitale joined the host live in studio to talk about the science behind the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and how LIGO has provided the ability to observe the universe in ways that have never been done before.
In addition to learning something new, Mavalvala explained how experimenting delivers an added piece of excitement: "pushing the technology, the precision of the instrument, requires you to be very inventive. There's almost nothing in these experiments that you can go buy off a shelf. Everything you're designing, everything is from scratch. You're meeting very stringent requirements."
Herwick likened how they might tweak or tinker with the experiment to souping up a car engine, and the LIGO scientists nodded - adding that in the most complex experiments, each bite-sized part on its own works well, and it's the interfaces between them that scientists must get right.
While there, the two long-time colleagues also took a detour to explain how in physics experimentalists benefit from the work of theorists and vice versa. Mavalvala, whose work focuses on building the world's most precise instruments to study physical phenomena, described the synergy between ideas that come from theory (work that Vitale does) and how you measure. (No, they assure Herwick, they don't get into a lot of fights.)
In fact, it's fantastic to have people from both worlds at MIT, said Vitale. Mavalvala agreed. "One of the things that's really important about theory in science is that ultimately, in physics especially, it's a bunch of math. And the important thing that you have to ask is, 'does nature really behave that way?' And how do you answer that question? You have to go out and measure. You have to go observe nature," said Mavalvala.
As scientists fine-tune the gravitational wave detectors, they will inform what data are collected, what astrophysical objects they might find or hope to find - and the search for certain fainter, farther away, or more exotic objects can inform what enhancements they prioritize.
But what if I'm not interested in any of that, asked Herwick? Why should I care?
"To me, it falls in the category of for the betterment of humankind. You never know what is going to be useful. A lot of fundamental research was very far at the beginning from what turned out to be fundamental applications," said Vitale, adding, "What they do on the instrument side has already now very important applications."
Mavalvala was unequivocal, underscoring how pursuing curiosity is put to good use:
"When you're making instruments that achieve that kind of precision, you're inventing new technologies. [With LIGO] We've invented vibration isolation technologies to keep our mirrors really still. We've invented lasers that are quieter than any that were ever made before. We've invented photonic techniques that are allowing us to make applications even to far off things like quantum computing.
"So, this is one of the beauties of fundamental discovery science. A, you'll discover something. But B you'll be doing two things: you'll be inventing the technologies of the future, and you'll be training the generations of scientists who may go off to do completely different things, but this is what inspires them."
Watch the full conversation below and on YouTube :
Planetary defense
Turning to objects beyond Earth - specifically, asteroids - Associate Professor Julien de Wit, along with research scientists Artem Burdanov and Saverio Cambioni, joined Herwick at the Curiosity Desk later in the month. They talked about their ongoing research to identify smaller asteroids (about the size of a school bus) using the James Webb Space Telescope and why planetary defense goes beyond thinking about the massive asteroids featured in movies like Armageddon. Notably, a lot of technology on earth depends on satellites, and asteroids pose the biggest threat to satellites.
"Dinosaurs didn't need to care about an asteroid hitting the moon. Humanity a century ago didn't care. Now, if [an asteroid] hits the moon, a lot of debris will be expelled and all those particles - big and small - they will affect the fleet of satellites around Earth. That's a big potential problem, so we need to take that into account in our future," said Burdanov.
There's also a potential upside to being better able to detect and potentially "capture" asteroids, explained de Wit, all of it benefitted by new instruments. "It's really an asteroid revolution going on… Our situational awareness of what's out there is really about to change dramatically."
He explains that one dream is to mine asteroids themselves for material to build or power next generation technologies or stations in space. "The way to reliably move into space is to use resources from space. We can't just move stuff to build a full city. We use stuff from space."
Echoing the sentiments expressed earlier in the month by MIT's dean of science, the trio of asteroid explorers also described how the pursuits of planetary scientists can lead to unexpected rewards along the way. "We are swimming in an era that is data rich, and so what we do in our group and at MIT is mine that data to reveal the universe like never before," says de Wit. "Revealing new populations of asteroids, new populations of planets, and making sense of our universe like we have never done."
Watch the full conversation below and on the GBH YouTube channel:
Tune in to the Curiosity Desk some Thursdays to hear from MIT researchers as they visit Herwick and the production team.
