History of Science and Engineering Annotation << Back SCIENTIFIC OPTIMISM AND SCIENTIFIC FEARLESSNESS WIN. (V.B. BRAGINSKY (1931–2016) AND HIS SCHOOL. THE PROBLEM OF DIRECT EXPERIMENTAL DETECTION OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES) A.V. Kessenikh Thus, the discovery of the gravitational wave, predicted more than 100 years ago by Einstein, was accomplished recently. A remarkable feature of this event is, apart from a broad international cooperation of researchers, in which the important role played by the national school V.B. Braginskii, the unity of many areas of physical science, which determined the success of this enterprise. An important lesson of this remarkable discovery, the independent signifi cance of many of the results obtained in the course of its achievement, which fi nd application in various fi elds of science. Keywords: general theory of relativity; gravitational waves; detectors of gravitational radiation; noise; determining sensitivity; parametric oscillatory instability; quantum effects in measuring the motion of macroscopic masses; School of V.B. Braginsky. Contacts: E-mail: kessen32@mail.ru Pp. 19-24.