Two views on gravity

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been busy teaching particle physics to two very different populations. First I work with little kids through the Davidson Institute, going over the ins and outs of making atoms. Then I took on particles again with my physics for poets class at SIUE. Between the two, its forced me to do a lot of thinking, and has reminded me how annoying gravity can be.
Here’s the problem: Einstein taught us that gravity is a manifestation of the geometry of space and particle physics says gravity comes from the exchange of bosons called gravitons. These takes the universe a few steps beyond electrons, protons, and all the other -ons are both particles and waves, and forces us to star at two rather different ways of understanding and visualizing one of the most fundamental things in our universe.
Let’s start with particle physics 101.
The idea that our universe is made of several very fundamental particles isn’t very novel. During ancient history, the idea that everything was made of either 4 elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) or 5 elements (where they added void) cropped up in Greek, Buddhist, Hindi, Japanese, Tibetan, and Chinese history. The ...