AS EVERY schoolchild knows, the concept of gravity came to Isaac Newton after a close encounter with an apple 鈥� or so the story goes. Older students go on to learn Einstein鈥檚 view of gravity: that masses warp space-time like a ball on a rubber sheet. Now we could be closing in on an explanation of where gravity comes from: it might be an emergent property of the way objects are organised, much as fluidity arises as a property of water (see 鈥淕ravity鈥檚 origin falling into place鈥�). This idea might seem exotic now, but to kids of the future it might be as familiar as apples.
Taking gravity out of Newton’s orchard
A new explanation of where gravity comes from might seem exotic now, but to kids of the future it might be as familiar as falling apples
