[cs_section style=”margin: 0px; padding: 45px 0px; “][cs_row style=”margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; ” inner_container=”true”][cs_column style=”padding: 0px; ” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″][cs_text]I’m a science geek who never studied much science. I love stories about people who have spent their lives searching for and predicting the existence of something and 40 years later it’s proved to be true– Peter Higgs learning the Higgs boson had been found; Andrei Linde being told that his big bang theory had been proved. This video brings me to tears.

Now I’m reading about Gravitational Waves predicted by Einstein 100 years ago and recently demonstrated to be true. Even though I only understand a fraction of what they’re talking about I get caught up in the excitement and I’m particularly amazed and impressed by the long-term dedication and follow-through by these scientists. Imagine working on something simply on faith with no possibility to verify it. That is commitment at a level I can barely comprehend.

The New Yorker article about finding Gravitational Waves states that,  “In their proposal, the LIGO team warned that their initial design was unlikely to detect anything. Nonetheless, they argued, an imperfect observatory had to be built in order to understand how to make a better one.”

272 million dollars to build something you expect to fail.

I find that so inspiring. To know that the process of discovery has to include failure in order to learn-– to plan for it, to count on it.

I’ve been recovering from a recent disappointment– a project didn’t go as I had hoped. I let it throw me. I expected perfection right out of the gate and did not have a drop of curiosity about what can I learn from this.

I have learned my lesson. Now I’m off to build an imperfect observatory.

“You never fail until you stop trying.”

― Albert Einstein[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section]

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