New Theories Test Our Understanding of Nature's Most Elemental Force
No one has ever quite nailed down gravity. Newton saw that bodies appeared to attract each other even at a great distance, and from this observation was able to construct a mathematical formula that predicted the motion of the planets with astonishing accuracy. Einstein improved on that definition by stating that massive objects attract lesser ones by bending the space around them-like how a bowling ball deforms the surface of a trampoline so that a marble will roll toward it-and based on this insight was able to construct his theory of general relativity, which proved to be even more elegant and predictive. Erik Verlinde: Erik Verlinde says gravity isn't a force at all. Erik P. VerlindeBut not perfect. Einstein's theory posits that the universe is expanding such that each object is moving away from everything else, which Hubble Space Telescope observations have confirmed. Yet for this theory to hold, it...