Find out what gravitational waves will tell us about the Universe: from understanding its birth to figuring out whether black holes have hairs.

Find out about the heroic effort that led to the detection of gravitational waves and the excitement of their discovery.

This issue of Plus is a special, marking the occasion of Stephen Hawking's 60th birthday. Plus attended his Birthday Conference in Cambridge, where we interviewed some of the world's most influential mathematicians and physicists.