A Scots scientist whose 'creative genius' played a key role in the project to detect gravitational waves was unable to celebrate the historic discovery with his colleagues because he is suffering from dementia.

Emeritus professor Ronald Drever, who previously worked at Glasgow University, helped set up the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo) which detected the ripples in space time.

The discovery, which has been called the 'biggest breakthrough of the century', proved Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

However, instead of celebrating with his colleagues, Professor Drever, 85, watched yesterday's events from a care home near Edinburgh with his brother Dr Ian Drever.

The Herald:

Kip Thorne, who helped develop Ligo, said Professor Drever's 'creative genius' was vital to the project.

Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, told The Telegraph: "It's very sad. He invented some of the key features, especially the recycling of laser light to effectively increase the path length."

The worldwide hunt for proof of gravitational waves began more than a quarter of a century ago and culminated in the construction of detectors in Louisiana and Washington State.

The project involved 1000 scientists and cost an estimated $620 million dollars (£429m). Following 25 years of work, success came barely a week after the facility underwent the £1 million upgrade to make it more sensitive.