In all honesty I do think Einstein is getting too much credit today. I&#x27;d paste the list of co-authors here to congratulate them but HN doesn&#x27;t allow comments that large. The list is available here for reference, and I think every one of them deserves credit for this.<p><pre><code>  http:&#x2F;&#x2F;journals.aps.org&#x2F;prl&#x2F;abstract&#x2F;10.1103&#x2F;PhysRevLett.116.061102
</code></pre>
On another note, I feel like the importance of this finding is less in proving Einstein&#x27;s theory; having taken a formal relativity class and an degree in Physics, I think GR itself is an astounding mathematical framework for describing spacetime, to which Einstein deserves credit, but the existence of gravitational waves is completely natural consequence of the equations within. It&#x27;s not very different from the existence of light being a natural consequence of Maxwell&#x27;s equations.<p>I&#x27;d say the true importance of this discovery is in successfully creating an <i>experimental apparatus</i> to detect what was previously almost universally agreed to probably exist but thought to be nearly impossible to detect. What&#x27;s truly exciting isn&#x27;t proving Einstein right, but the possibilities of what we&#x27;ll be able to to detect with this apparatus in the future. So it&#x27;s the team that built the apparatus which truly deserves the credit today.