Crush: Close Encounters with Gravity

The story of gravity, from its intimate role in our daily lives to its cosmic significance.

In Praise of Crush:

“Riordon strikes the perfect balance between personal anecdote and scientific insight in this eminently readable rumination on the many ways gravity impacts both our daily lives and our universe.”
—Jennifer Ouellette, author of The Calculus Diaries

“A fascinating exploration, packed with surprising insights and eye-opening explanations of cutting-edge physics. Riordon shows how gravity is at the heart of some of the biggest puzzles in the universe, and how understanding it could point us toward a deeper understanding of everything.”
—Clara Moskowitz, senior editor at Scientific American

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Gravity is at once familiar and mysterious. It’s the reason for the numbers on your bathroom scale, the intricate dance of the stars and planets, and the evolution and eventual fate of the universe. In Crush, James Riordon takes readers on a tour of gravity from its vanishing insignificance on the microscopic scale to its crushing extreme inside black holes.