Cardiff University’s Bernard Schutz, the lead author of the paper, has long pondered how the gravitational waves are vital for the existence of… well… *gestures at everything*. In a sort of domino effect of occurrences, gravitational waves gave rise to us. “Gravitational waves carry energy away from binary star systems and thereby bring the stars closer together,” the authors wrote. The ESA has even began developing plans for LISA’s successor, called the Big Bang Observer (BBO), to detect gravitational waves generated from the universe’s formation. So, while it’s true that all life is made of star stuff, it’s gravitational waves that made all that star stuff possible.