Gravity: how the weakest force in the universe shaped our lives

Gravity is one of the most accepted laws of science. Drop an object and it falls to earth because of the attraction between the earth and the object. What alerts the earth and the object to act? Is there a sort of communication between them? Theoretical physicists have struggled to explain gravitational attraction over distance since Einstein posed his theories of special and general relativity. Quantum theory, string theory, M theory, and other theoretical inquiries have failed to solve the riddle. In his history of gravity from the Big Bang to the present, popular science author Clegg recounts international efforts to understand what is thought to be the weakest yet most essential force holding the universe together. Black holes, warps in space and time, and antimatter are featured in this wide-ranging account, which will be of interest to science students and readers of science fiction.