  The recent measurement of the Shapiro delay in the radio pulsar PSR
J1614-2230 yielded a mass of 1.97 +/- 0.04 M_sun, making it the most massive
pulsar known to date. Its mass is high enough that, even without an
accompanying measurement of the stellar radius, it has a strong impact on our
understanding of nuclear matter, gamma-ray bursts, and the generation of
gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars. This single high mass value
indicates that a transition to quark matter in neutron-star cores can occur at
densities comparable to the nuclear saturation density only if the quarks are
strongly interacting and are color superconducting. We further show that a high
maximum neutron-star mass is required if short duration gamma-ray bursts are
powered by coalescing neutron stars and, therefore, this mechanism becomes
viable in the light of the recent measurement. Finally, we argue that the
low-frequency (<= 500 Hz) gravitational waves emitted during the final stages
of neutron-star coalescence encode the properties of the equation of state
because neutron stars consistent with this measurement cannot be centrally
condensed. This will facilitate the measurement of the neutron star equation of
state with Advanced LIGO/Virgo.
