The Universal Force

`Girifalco is a fluid writer, and his stories are compelling. This book about the force of gravity has its feet firmly on the ground.' Nature, January 2008 `Girifalco's conventional style and excellent explanations belie the difficulty of these topics, resulting in a deep, yet understandable, explanation of all the weird facts about the universe that relativity implies, none more so than the true nature of gravity.' Philadelphia Inquirer `Perfectly readable, engaging the reader quickly with the subject matter.' Martin Hendry, University of Glasgow `Fluidly and gracefully written, in an engaging, easy-to-read, non-mathematical style.' Hugh Van Horn, University of Rochester, NY `Unique in its historic perspective, with its biographies of very high quality, and its use of the subject to illustrate the nature of science itself, how it works, what it can, and most important, what it cannot do.' David Welch, Brookhaven National Laboratory `Girfalco's passionate book is a good introduction to the ancient history of cosmology, the personalities involved, and the experimental method.' Gordon Fraser, author of Cosmic Anger: Abdus Salam, the first Muslim Nobel Scientist `'The Universal Force' by Louis Girifalco is an excellent introduction to the fundamental concepts underlying our modern theory of gravity that contains some engagingly written descriptions of the work of the people who contributed to its development ... A very impressive and enjoyable book.' Physics World, April 2008 `'The biographies are interesting and very readable...'' David Storey, Astronomy Now, January 2008