gravitational waves

For the second time in recent months, scientists say they have picked up distortions in space and time. The find suggests smaller-sized black holes may be more numerous than many scientists thought.

To make enough of the elements to support the chemical complexity of biology, we need an enormously old universe. Stars truly are the factories of life. But for you or your cat to exist, several generations of stars need to have come and gone - each born from the atoms of previous generations, like the babies of the Orion Nebula.

Behind the headlines and news conferences announcing the discovery were decades of hard work, hundreds of scientists and more than a billion dollars in taxpayer funds.

A U.S.-led team says it has seen waves in space-time from two black holes merging together. It is the first time humanity has directly detected such waves.