They just announced a null result for the LIGO, using data collected from 2005-2007. That means a set upper limit on gravity waves.

There's more data to be had, and there's an Advanced LIGO upgrade in the works, from the sounds of it, that will boost the coverage a thousandfold.

If that fails to find gravity waves, then things get really interesting - in particular for string theories and interpretations of GR.

(Gravity waves are in some corners also held to be a theoretical prediction of inflation theory, but ω_gw is supposed to be about 10^-16, and even Advanced LIGO goes down only as far as 10^-9 - we'd have to wait for BBO/DECIGO for that. Source.)

I made a prediction some years back that the breakthroughs in quantum mechanics were probably going to come from quantum computing and not the more esoteric or theoretical work. This is from the end of last year, and it details how to make a weak measurement and still stand a good chance of returning the system to its pre-measurement state.

(That said, I was probably wrong about the prediction. Quantum computing has done a lot for us, but the exotic states of matter are teaching us quite a bit, too :)

Stuff like this that plays with the edges of phase, state, decoherence and measurement are really going to push the boundaries of QM... the interpretations of it, in particular. Hopefully, there's a way to lay to rest the "human consciousness is required" myth that a surprising number of people seem to hold on to.

Is it really the human consciousness that is required, or is it just any observer?

Ari said:

Is it really the human consciousness that is required, or is it just any observer?

It depends on who you talk to. We still don't technically know exactly what the measurement operation in quantum physics does. If you look around for discussions on 'does consciousness collapse the wave function', you might get a sample of such thinking. The original Copenhagen interpretation separated the quantum and macro/classical worlds, leaving a spot for such interpretation. That was in part the reason for Schrödinger's 'cat' thought experiment, to show to what silly ends it could be taken.

That seems to have led to some quantum mysticism, including amongst physicists, with some idea that human consciousness must be something special vis-a-vis the quantum world with the ability to cause a wave function collapse. I don't know whether physicists like Roger Penrose and Nick Herbert were inspired by such mysticism to create treatises on how quantum physics has some special explanation for consciousness [that neurobiologists have somehow missed?]