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Claudia de Rham explores gravity through science and her life. What do we know about it? What is still unclear? She blends her life story with a guide to physics. She starts with Galileo and Newton. She then turns to black holes and dark energy.

De Rham links these ideas to things she has done. She recalls dives in the Indian Ocean. She felt buoyancy, the force that helped her float. She tells of flights over falls in Canada before work. Her hope of going to space adds another view of gravity.

Her research tests the limits of Einstein’s general relativity. She draws on the work of Newton and Einstein. She also draws on Stephen Hawking, Andrea Ghez and Roger Penrose. Their work guides her study of gravity at the scale of particles. She shows how this led to her theory of massive gravity.

De Rham teaches theoretical physics at Imperial College in London. She belongs to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She works on gravity and particle physics. She also studies cosmology, the study of the universe. She asks how the universe began and what laws guide it. She studies how it expands at a growing rate.

Constantin Dumitru-Palcus translated this edition. Its source is The Beauty of Falling. A Life in Pursuit of Gravity.