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NL888 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

What does "making waves" mean here?

1) Does "making waves" mean "the perturbation (by the relic gravitational waves) in the early Universe on space-time is like making waves"?
2) Does "This esoteric pattern" mean "the model of how the polarization of photons varies across the sky"?

Context:

Making waves

The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite team should release data on how the polarization of photons from the Universe’s cosmic microwave background varies across the sky. This esoteric pattern is thought to have been generated by ‘inflation’, the rapid expansion of the Universe after the Big Bang. If it can be detected, its details could provide evidence of relic gravitational waves, thought to have perturbed space-time in the early Universe.
  

Top answer

1) It is a play on words. It has a literal meaning (referring to the creation of gravitational waves), but "make waves" is also an idiomatic expression meaning to make a big stir or disturbance, referring here, I suppose, to the importance of the potential scientific discoveries. I don't know if it's the same in your language, but in English headline writers just love to make these little wordplays.

— GPY

  • 1) It is a play on words.
  • It has a literal meaning (referring to the creation of gravitational waves), but "make waves" is also an idiomatic expression meaning to make a big stir or disturbance, referring here, I suppose, to the importance of the potential scientific discoveries.
  • I don't know if it's the same in your language, but in English headline writers just love to make these little wordplays.
  • 2) "pattern" refers to "how the polarization of photons from the Universe’s cosmic microwave background varies across the sky".
  • "esoteric" has usual dictionary meaning.
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3 Answers
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1) It is a play on words. It has a literal meaning (referring to the creation of gravitational waves), but "make waves" is also an idiomatic expression meaning to make a big stir or disturbance, referring here, I suppose, to the importance of the potential scientific discoveries. I don't know if it's the same in your language, but in English headline writers just love to make these little wordplay
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Thank you GPY.

A question is still left there: what thought to have perturbed space-time in the early Universe?
'relic gravitational waves' or just "(general) gravitational waves"? Can you see from the grammatical structure there?
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NL888A question is still left there: what thought to have perturbed space-time in the early Universe?'relic gravitational waves' or just "(general) gravitational waves"? Can you see from the grammatical structure there?
Just from the English, it reads as if relic gravitational waves perturbed space-time in the early Universe. Whether this is actually what was
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