ALBERT Einstein has helped bring a Scottish scientist back from the grip of dementia.
Ronald Drever began working on an experiment in the 1960s to help prove one of Einstein’s most outlandish predictions – gravitational waves.
Thirty years later the theory remained unproved and Professor Drever was affected by dementia to the point where he was not eating, sleeping or communicating.
Read more: Dambusters uncle inspired Scots gravitational waves scientist
But in February this year, Professor Drever’s experiment was finally used to prove Einstein’s theory.
Gravitational waves from the collision of black holes two billion years ago passed through the Earth and were detected by the experiment, designed by Professor Drever at Caltech – the California Institute of Technology.
When the 85-year-old, who now lives in a care home near Edinburgh, was shown a report about the breakthrough by his brother, he “suddenly picked up”. His niece, Anne Drever, said: “He had deteriorated. He was not sleeping or eating, we didn’t think he had long to go.”
Before the announcement, the former Glasgow University academic was confused much of the time. Afterwards, he started having conversations again.
Ms Drever said: “He just suddenly picked up. That spark he hadn’t had for years became increasingly bright.”
Read more: Dambusters uncle inspired Scots gravitational waves scientist
Gravitational waves are ripples in the curvature of spacetime that cause stretching and squeezing on a miniscule scale to everything they pass through, including humans. Proving their existence helps validate Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, as well as giving scientists a new method with which to study the universe.
Professor Drever’s experiment involved creating a detector in Louisiana and another in Washington state, each of them 4km long. Having detectors thousands of miles apart allowed scientists to measure the tiny effect of the waves.
Ms Drever explained that she did not understand the signaificance of her uncle’s work when she was younger.
She said: “I remember my dad talking about Ronald being special and that he was doing something that was going to further our knowledge of the world.”
Read more: Dambusters uncle inspired Scots gravitational waves scientist
On Sunday, Ms Drever was in California with her son Thomas, 16, to collect Ronald’s share of the £2.4 million Breakthrough prize in Physics. He has also received the Kavli Prize, the Shaw Prize, the Gruber Prize in Cosmology.
It is believed he could win the Nobel Prize next year.
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