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Title: Isaac Newton by JAMES GLEICK ISBN: 0-375-42233-1 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 13 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.37 (35 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Newton was not a Newtonian
Comment: One of the aspirations of my life is to come to a layman's understanding of science. One general aspect of learning and teaching that has always fascinated me has been the ability to present a subject matter in such a fashion that despite its complexity, can be understood by presenting simple metaphor and building concepts in a linear fashion leading to comprehension. A dream of mine would be someday to teach general history survey courses in college, and perhaps in High School as well, and do so in such a fashion that was both exciting, inspiring and educational. Anyway, science is an area that I am trying to build up an understanding of. I have a friend who inspires me, he is a bona fide a nuclear physicist and it always amazes me at his scientific knowledge. In pursuit of understanding I set off to read this biography.
Gleick has written a terse and dense biography of one of the most intellectually influential "scientists" of the "modern" era. I write scientist and modern in quotes to denote that our perception is particular skewed with the latent meaning we bring to both of those concepts and that not only is it not clear that Newton associated himself with either terms, it is certain that his world view was very different from our own. One particularly striking point along these lines, was the fact that Newton was avid in his pursuit of alchemy, although this fact was not known till long after his death. In the current Newtonian world of formalized science there is a clear distinction between the reputable study of the elements known as chemistry and the disreputable unscientific magical study of alchemy. But Newton lived in a pre-Newtonian world. Newton himself was not a Newtonian, in all the sense that we think of the word.
Gleick makes Newton accessible. He distills an essence of Newton, and skillfully presents vista's into Newton's life, in a short 191 pages of a very small book whose dimensions are only 8 by 5 1/2 inches. This is amended by 47 pages of footnotes as well as 18 pages of acknowledgment and sources. I am not knocking the size, merely noting its shape.
Gleick is a great writer, mostly pulling off a well written and understandable presentation of Newton, his research, writings and habits. He has done a great service, for Newton was a prodigious writer. Tucked away in one of the last footnotes of the book is an enlightening quote regarding one of Newton's books described as a "work of colossal tedium...read today only by the tiniest remnant who for their sins must pass through its purgatory". Gleick notes that Newton had written a million words prior to the publication of one. Newton was a very isolated and withdrawn individual who often would spend days in his room, and he prodigiously copied entire books, paraphrasing and filling volumes with his own writing. Writing seemed a vehicle for focusing and organizing his thought processes. Much of his writing was never published, and so this biography in many ways allows a view of man whose breadth otherwise would be inaccessible to save but a remnant, if not by the staggering volume, then the inscrutable intellectualism.
One final point that struck me was how much of the modern world view, that I am so much akin to, is grounded in Newtonian principles. Gleick notes that "What Newton learned entered into the marrow of what we know without knowing how we know it." Namely a reducible universe, with first causes, and laws that govern behavior in a universal fashion. First principles and universal gravity have at their philosophical underpinnings fundamental principles that are the very fabric of the way we perceive the world.
Post Script, while Newton described and laid bare the laws of the universe, he could not do so without wonder and mystery. Gravity had no known cause, no known agent as its first principle, Newton noted this "question I have left to the consideration of my readers" And so it goes.
Rating: 5
Summary: Engaging and accessible story of a great man and his science
Comment: Gleick's biography of Isaac Newton covers the gamut of the man's life, science and impact. Although under 200 pages of text, the book weaves a complete tale and goes beyond to give a popular account of the basics of calculus as well as Newton's contributions to physics (I could have used the quote of Newton's statement on the meaning of the infinitesimal in my calc class had I finished the book a day earlier.) It's a testament to Gleick's writing ability that the book imparts so much in an engaging and succinct read.
Rating: 3
Summary: Doesn't capture enough of the inner-Newton
Comment: There were moments in this book, but overall I was left a bit disappointed by the author's lack of insight into the man himself. I have always held Newton in awe, and wondered what his IQ might have measured. Perhaps what I was looking for in this book was not the author's intent in focus. I've read many scientific books that detail the theories and history of Newton's contributions. In this book I hoped to find more of an inner glimpse into Newton's psyche. What it did reveal was disillusioning--Newton was apparently petty, jealous, and socially inept. For those who are looking for a biography, this doesn't cut the mustard. For those who are not already familiar with the scientific thought of the day and with Newton's accomplishments, this book will be much more satisfying.
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Title: Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time by Peter Louis Galison ISBN: 0393020010 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Genius : The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick ISBN: 0679747044 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 02 November, 1993 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0767908171 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene ISBN: 0375412883 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 10 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
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Title: The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0198607024 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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