Pisa. Adalberto Giazotto, an Italian physicist, dies. He had the intuition that gravitational wave detectors could be built on Earth using enormous interferometers with stationary pendulums to minimize coupling of the mirrors with the ground. These interferometers searched for signals in the 10-100Hz range, previously unexplored and the most interesting of all. These were the low notes of a pipe organ (Adalberto was the son of a well-known musician). Adalberto carried out his experiments with stationary pendulums practically alone for several years. His idea would form the basis of the American LIGO detectors, which would first make the discovery, as well as the Italian Virgo detector in Pisa, which would confirm the discovery of gravitational waves and detect many others. Adalberto died shortly after the discovery.
