Few people were as thrilled with the big physics news today as physicist Andrei Linde. One of the main authors of inflation theory—the idea that the universe expanded incredibly rapidly just after it was born in the big bang—Linde has reason to be excited. Physicists announced this morning that they have discovered imprints of gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background light pervading the sky—a finding that many are calling “direct evidence” of inflation theory. Chao-Lin Kuo, an assistant professor of physics at Stanford University and a co-leader of the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization 2 (BICEP2) team behind the finding, knocked on Linde’s door to deliver the news personally. Kuo tells an accompanying cameraperson, “He has no idea that I’m coming.”

Read the full article in Scientic American here.

[via Thøger Juul Rivera-Thorsen in Stockholm]