Isaac Newton
Ratings5
Average rating4
15
Ratings5
Average rating4
"In this biography, James Gleick moves between a comprehensive historical portrait and a dramatic focus on Newton's significant letters and unpublished notebooks to illuminate the real importance of his work in physics, in optics, and in calculus. He makes us see the old intuitive, alchemical universe out of which Newton's mathematics first arose and shows us how Newton's ideas have altered all forms of understanding from history to philosophy. And he gives us an account of the conflicting impulses that pulled at this man's heart: his quiet longings, his rage, his secrecy, the extraordinary subtleties of personality that were mirrored in the invisible forces he first identified as the building blocks of science. More than biography, more than history, more than science, Isaac Newton tells us how, through the mind of one man, we have come to know our place in the cosmos."--BOOK JACKET
Reviews with the most likes.
Great, concise biography of the man that discovered the fundamental mechanics of the universe, from the author of the excellent ‘The Information'.
Newton made our natural world absolute and mathematical. He's the point at which Physics and Philosophy split paths. Suddenly the world was deterministic, they could predict solar eclipses and the path of comets. Gods, myths and the unknown had to retreat.
A fascinating biography of the man who triggered that monumental change. Who had to grapple new concepts and assign words to novel phenomena (gravity!). A scholar who equally dabbled in natural sciences yet also was obsessed with alchemy and religion. A shut-in who discovered optics and the laws of motion, yet kept that knowledge to himself, refusing to publish because he liked nothing less than dispute with scientists of opposing believes. And yet he quarreled a lot, with Robert Hooke, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Newton came out on top, and even ended his life quite wealthy, minting coins for the King, and presiding over the The Royal Society.
Hard to imagine that any future scientific discovery would ever have such a monumental effect over our world views again. And if yes, it'll be scary.
