Gravity, wimpiest of all forces, still vexes scientists

Gravity, wimpiest of all forces, still vexes scientists - Technology & science - Science - LiveScience - msnbc.com:

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In the deepest depths of space, gravity tugs on matter to form galaxies, stars, black holes and the like. In spite of its infinite reach, however, gravity is the wimpiest of all forces in the universe.

This weakness also makes it the most mysterious, as scientists can't measure it in the laboratory as easily as they can detect its effects on planets and stars. The repulsion between two positively charged protons, for example, is 1036 times stronger than gravity's pull between them — that's 1 followed by 36 zeros less macho.

Physicists want to squeeze little old gravity into the standard model — the crown-jewel theory of modern physics that explains three other fundamental forces in physics — but none has succeeded. Like a runt at a pool party, gravity just doesn't fit in when using Einstein's theory of relativity, which explains gravity only on large scales.