James Riordon

For this jaunty gem of a book, I'll just give a chapter-by-chapter synopsis. 1: Sobering research into how bodies of humans (and other animals) are affected by different amounts of gravity suggests that prolonged conventional zero-g space travel may be downright toxic. (So, billions of years hence, we or our descendant species may decide to move the entire Earth far out from Sol to survive Sol's red-giant phase and later move it back in ultra-close for Sol's white-dwarf phase!) 2: Ways in show more which gravity has constrained the evolution of various species. 3: For other worlds to be habitable by humans, they would have to be quite similar to Earth in many ways including surface gravity (but not mass). 4: Post-Newton history of the verification that Earth's precise shape is roughly that of a prolate spheroid. 5: Relativity, both special and general; they're mixed together in a manner that would probably confuse novices. 6: How the precise value of G is sought; extra dimensions and multiverse theories as possible explanations of the weakness of gravity. 7: Black holes; they're described using a flowing-space concept that substitutes for the usual warped-spacetime concept — this, the Gullstrand-Painlevé interpretation of general relativity (there's a mathematical appendix on it), was truly an eye opener for me! 8. Gravitational waves; author Riordon of course discusses LIGO and the proposed LISA here, but we also learn of his personal dealings with Joseph Weber, who first tried to detect the waves non-interferometrically. 9: The problematic lack of a solid theory of quantum gravity; loop quantum gravity may be better than string theory but not good enough. 10: Dark matter — including the Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) alternative therefor — and dark energy; these give rise to the widely favored LambdaCDM model of the universe. 11: Undiscovered questionables; warp drives made Riordon's list here, so why didn't space elevators? 12: The big picture of gravity as a catalyst for life in the universe. 13: Dreams involving gravity (e.g. flying). 14: One last nod to Newton and Einstein. show less