The Evolution of XM Means

The idea of looking for a common signal and all of the pulsars was only published in 1983. So it's really taken a lot of time to get people to care about this is an experiment that can actually do really interesting physics. Some estimates put building LIGO at something like $2 billion over the 40 years where it was, you know, being funded and operated and upgraded - so it's a huge investment. The field was not exactly stagnant, but not flourishing. And so I think that it was a PR battle in order to getpeople to care about pulsar timing because my radio astronomer colleagues are superstars in radio astronomy timing pulsars.