Cascina, Pisa, Italy. The Italian-French gravitational wave detector project is ready to take its first data. It comes a year later than its American counterpart due to the lengthy procedures required to expropriate all the land in an area like the Pisa countryside. It costs €78 million (compared to $240 million for the two American projects) and searches in the 10Hz-10kHz region. Both Virgo in Italy and LIGO in the United States will begin joint gravitational wave observations starting in late 2015. LIGO will arrive on time, on September 18, 2015, while Virgo will arrive a few months later. The first discovery will inevitably be American…
