The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity

By Claudia de Rham

‘I knew Claudia de Rham is a world-class physicist, and now I know she’s a marvelous writer as well.’

– Sean Carroll, author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion

‘A valuable read for the curious minds seeking a unique look into the heart of gravity’s mysteries.’

– Sara Seager, author of the Smallest Lights in the Universe

A brilliant physicist traces the trajectory of her tumultuous life in science, revealing how her ground-breaking research is providing a new perspective on gravity

We all know what gravity feels like – when we throw a ball, swing in a hammock or send a stone skipping along the surface of a pond, we’re all carrying out our own personal experiments with gravity. Yet the brightest minds in history have yet to answer the simple question: what exactly is gravity?

Physicist Claudia de Rham has been playing with gravity for her entire life, as a pilot soaring through the sky, as a diver delving into the deep sea and very nearly as an astronaut with the European Space Agency. In The Beauty of Falling, she builds the most intimate, vivid portrait of gravity we have so far, from Newton, through Galileo and Einstein, to modern researchers such as the Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Andrea Ghez. De Rham closes with the theory of ‘massive gravity’ that she and her colleagues have uncovered, a theory that may finally move physics beyond general relativity and help to unravel some knotty mysteries of our Universe.

Along the way, she tells her own story, from her globe-trotting upbringing, to her rollercoaster-ride astronaut selection process, to her cutting-edge research. The Beauty of Falling gives readers a window into the world of science today in a way that can inspire people from all backgrounds to fully appreciate our mysterious, playful, gravity-driven universe.