MIT President's Open Letter to LIGO Team That Detected Gravitational Waves: Praising Humanity's Entry into a New Era

MIT President's open letter to the LIGO team that first detected gravitational waves, praising this historic discovery as a major milestone in human science and achievement. The letter notes this discovery validates Einstein's general relativity's accurate description of how the universe works and opens entirely new methods of observing the cosmos—'listening' to events like black hole collisions. The president also stresses this accomplishment represents both the breadth of human imagination (Einstein's prediction) and scientists' decades of patience, creativity, international collaboration, and massive government funding for basic science. The letter emphasizes that while basic science may seem to lack 'practical value,' LIGO's developed technologies will inevitably be applied and produce enormous unforeseen benefits in the future, highlighting basic science's importance to social development.