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.
YANBEI CHEN: And it's been a long time, and I kept it a secret all these days, all these months.
MCEVERS: He couldn't even tell some colleagues.
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.
MCEVERS: But now the secret is out.
CHEN: For me to see the announcement and finally, I can talk, communicate openly about this, it feels different.
MCEVERS: So tonight, that means Chen and his colleagues can finally get together and celebrate. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.