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Black holes remain one of the great enigmas of the universe.

But thanks to research by UWA physicist Professor David Blair, within the next decade we may be able to detect gravitational waves on earth and "listen" to the sounds of these and other astronomical phenomena.

Professor Blair's research into gravitational waves has won him the $100,000 Premier's Scientist of the Year Award, adding to a list of medals and awards that include the prestigious Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) medal in 2005.

Professor Blair's research is the driving force behind the development of a wave detector at the Australian International Gravitational Observatory at Gingin. The observatory will be the third point of a triangle of high-powered gravitational wave detectors - the others being in Italy and the United States.

"Without the southern hemisphere observatory, you cannot work out where things are and how far away they are," Professor Blair says. "It is absolutely critical there is a southern hemisphere observatory. It multiplies the scientific value of the northern hemisphere observatories twentyfold."

Australian and international scientists are collaborating to develop techniques that will make gravitational wave astronomy a reality. The WA detector, which has cost $30 million and requires a further $50 million, will be one of the world's biggest.

Like a supersensitive microphone about one billion times more sensitive than a human ear, it will measure the tiny vibrations made when gravitational waves pass through objects.

Professor Blair has won an international reputation with his research on gravity waves over the past 25 years. He developed UWA's niobium wave gravity detector and in 1984 developed the first sapphire clock - a super precise timepiece designed for space.

He also coordinates new projects for the educational Gravity Discovery Centre, which he said was recently described by Nobel Prize winner Roger Penrose as "the best science (education) centre in the world". A cosmology gallery that "tells the history of the universe" will open early next year and a $3 million tower to replicate Galileo's experiments on the leaning tower of Pisa is being built.

Investment in physics is a keen motivator for Professor Blair, who laments the lack of resources in physics teaching and professional development for overstretched high school physics teachers.

"You cannot develop physics by just mopping up at the edges," he said. "You have to make a serious investment," he said.

"Physics teaching now is just teaching 300 year old physics. They need to learn about the exciting frontiers which are now being left out of the curriculum.

"I have gone out to create an education centre where we can teach teachers this modern physics and show them it is not something to be scared of."

Professor Blair said the detection of gravity waves would open up a whole new spectrum, like the discovery of electromagnetic waves in the 1880s did in revolutionising our lives and our understanding of the universe during the 20 ^th century.

Written by Janine MacDonald, for ScienceNetwork WA www.sciencewa.net.au