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The merger of two black holes caused the ripples that were discovered by LIDO a few months ago.

Takaaki Kajita, a Nobel Prize awardee, and his team of researchers recently announced that Japan is already testing the KAGRA telescope. The Japanese scientists are thus contributing to the world effort of finding gravitational waves.

The United States was the first country to confirm the existence of Einstein’s gravitational waves. In order to do so, the US researchers used the “National Science Foundation’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory”, or LIGO, for short.

Now, the US announced that they want to build a third gravitational waves detector in India. The researchers are trying to better understand the phenomenon and the way in which the waves propagate.

Even LIGO announced that they are currently modifying their device so that it could detect gravitational waves better and faster.

But is finding gravitational waves that important? It is if we want to understand how stars and planets are born, if we want to better grasp the concept of space and time, of life itself.

How Can Gravitational Waves Be Explained?

Gravitational waves can be defined s ripples in space and time. The concept of these ripples in the fabric of life was defined and used by Albert Einstein in his general relativity theory. According to him, when a significant deceleration or acceleration of two masses happen, the ripples are formed within the fabric of space and time.

LIGO managed to detect the gravitational waves formed by the merger of two black holes situated about 1.2 billion light-years away from our planet. The impact of the two gravitational forces caused a ripple effect that reached the Earth.

For a better understanding of the phenomena, think about the ripples that form in a pond when you throw rocks in it. The bigger the rock and the force with which the object is thrown, the wider the ripples.

When the two gravitational masses collided, the explosion was so powerful that the ripples managed to reach our planet.

Why Does It Matter If We Find Gravitational Waves or Not?

Finding gravitational waves is crucial in the understanding of the Universe, of the way life came to be, of the planets and stars and black holes.

Apart from the fact that finding gravitational waves helped Einstein prove his theory of general relativity post-mortem, the ripples in time and space are an important factor in the way in which the Universe is designed.

Furthermore, it proves that humanity is ready for the next step when it comes to comprehending life and the forces of the Universe.

Image source: Wikimedia

People are advised to get their flu shots, as the flu activity is on the rise.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flu activity is increasing in the United States.

The best way to prevent the flu is to get the flu vaccine each year. The vaccine takes one to two weeks to start working and is 70 to 90 percent effective in preventing the seasonal flu.

Every year from 25 million to 50 million people are infected with flu in America. Of those, more than 200,000 people end up in hospitals and approximately 23,000 die, according to reports from ADH. The seasonal flu is spread easily, through coughing, sneezing or touching a surface that has the virus on it and not washing the hands afterwards.

The flu attacks the throat, the nose and the lungs. The people who are most endangered by the flu are the children, the elders ,the persons who have chronic health issues and the pregnant women.

Doctors advise the Americans to get shots against the flu at least once a year, in order to better avoid it. On the other hand, CDC recommends flu shots every six months. After the vaccination, the patient has to wait up to two weeks in order for the vaccine to start being efficient. The flu vaccination can protect the people from the flu, and it has been known to have an efficiency that is up to 90%.

In order to avoid the flu infection, people should wash their hands often, avoid contact with sick people and hold a tissue close to the mouth when they sneeze or cough. The flu is linked to more severe complications like pneumonia, bronchitis, ear infections and sinus infections. Even though most of the people recover from the flu in maximum two weeks, to a lot of people catching the disease is fatal. Symptoms of the flu include fever, nausea, body aches, chills, coughing, sneezing, muscle aches, runny nose, tiredness, vomiting, sore throat and diarrhea.

Since the flu season started in October, two people already died in Arkansas due to the flu. This month, the flu activity was seen mostly in Arizona, in the South East and on the West Coast. One of the most shocking cases of flu was registered in Washington, where a 12 year old girl died only four days after she started showing flu symptoms. Piper Lowery complained of having high fever on January 12 and on January 16, she was already dead. The flu activity is increasing in the United States, and people should prepare to fight the disease. One of the best weapons against the flu is the vaccine, which is not too late to have.

Image Source: www.res.freestockphotos.biz

Finding Gravitational Waves

How Can Gravitational Waves Be Explained?

Why Does It Matter If We Find Gravitational Waves or Not?

The Flu Activity is Increasing in the United States

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