The Ascent of Gravity: The Quest to Understand the Force that Explains Everything

Written by:
Marcus Chown
Narrated by:
Adjoa Andoh

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
5
Narrator
1
Release Date
November 2017
Duration
9 hours 20 minutes
Summary
Why the force that keeps our feet on the ground holds the key to understanding the nature of time and the origin of the universe.

Gravity is the weakest force in the everyday world yet it is the strongest force in the universe. It was the first force to be recognized and described yet it is the least understood. It is a 'force' that keeps your feet on the ground yet no such force actually exists.

Gravity, to steal the words of Winston Churchill, is 'a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.' And penetrating that enigma promises to answer the biggest questions in science: what is space? What is time? What is the universe? And where did it all come from?

Award-winning writer Marcus Chown takes us on an unforgettable journey from the recognition of the 'force' of gravity in 1666 to the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015. And, as we stand on the brink of a seismic revolution in our worldview, he brings us up to speed on the greatest challenge ever to confront physics.
Reviews
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Gary L.

The book was “ok”....neither extraordinary nor dull. But every time I’d start to enjoy it the narrator would attempt to add meat to the story by reading dialogue in what she appeared to think were accurate accents. And the only way she could appear to have done so was by listening to cartoon characters. Honestly, if you ever want to read Albert Einstein’s ideas as elucidated by Yosemite Sam, this is the book for you. Likewise, if you think of Neils Bohr as Daffy Duck and Ernest Rutherford as Toucan Sam.....or Foghorn Leghorn, this book is a dream come true. But frankly, all this work did was to make me painfully aware of the weaknesses of audio as a medium for expressing the written word. I didn’t think it remotely possible, but this book actually had me pining for Mr Enthusiasm, Sean Runnette.

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