KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: For Yanbei Chen, today's big announcement wasn't actually a surprise. He's a Cal Tech physicist who found out about the gravitational waves shortly after they were detected back in September. But the news was kept secret so the results could be verified, and Chen worked on that.</s>YANBEI CHEN: And it's been a long time, and I kept it a secret all these days, all these months.</s>KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: He couldn't even tell some colleagues.</s>YANBEI CHEN: I couldn't tell them the whole thing I know, so that feels a little bit weird. I have not done these kinds of things before.</s>KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: But now the secret is out.</s>YANBEI CHEN: For me to see the announcement and finally, I can talk, communicate openly about this, it feels different.</s>KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: So tonight, that means Chen and his colleagues can finally get together and celebrate.
For Cal Tech scientist Yanbei Chen, the announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves wasn't a surprise. He first heard the news in September, but had to keep it secret for months.