Physicists awarded top Aussie science gong - The Young Witness

"Never did I guess that I'd be hooked into this for the next four decades and we'd go struggling and struggling and struggling until finally we managed to detect these waves.".

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of time and space produced by merging black holes and exploding stars.

Building equipment capable of honing in on the waves and blocking out everything else meant developing what Prof Blair describes as the quietest place in the universe.

"People used to think that space was just empty and silent and that space was also something that was sort of rigid - matter didn't affect space and when you walk around the room, you're not changing the room," Prof Blair says.

"The fact that they're giving a prize for something which might seem a little bit esoteric shows that at some level, the government really recognises the importance of science," Prof Blair says.