Isaac Newton: A Compelling Science Biography of Gravity and the Laws of Motion

James Gleick certainly never lets you get bored. This biography of Sir Isaac Newton - a man who lived an improbable eighty four years and in that time invented much of mathematics, classical physics and optics, postulated gravity, ran the Royal Mint, relentlessly persecuted forgers and secretly devoted a fair bit of his life to alchemy - is done and dusted in under 200 generously margined pages, so being of a short attention span is no barrier. This is a great book: Gleick's prose, while undeniably efficient, is nonetheless possessed of a disarming elegance and his analysis is insightful and engaging: I found myself lowering the book and staring into space pondering its implications a good deal. We tend to think of Newton as the father of the modern enlightenment without concluding that, ergo, the times he inhabited were QED un-enlightened. This makes the amount and scope of a single man's achievement all the more stunning: parameters we take absolutely for granted - such as the measurable and consistent passage of time - for most purposes, just didn't exist: it was by Newton's singular and cantankerous will that we became "enlightened" at all. Science, mathematics philosophy and religion were simply not the carefully compartmentalised and ontologically parsed disciplines they are today: they were merely different aspects of the same tangled skein. Gleick also records how indebted our now "untangled" skein is to Newton's ministrations: were the programmes of Robert Hooke or Gottfried Leibniz - great antagonists of Newton's in their day - to have prevailed, the uncomfortable suspicion is that our scientific landscape now might look very different. Newton's famous deference to the shoulders of giants was in reality uttered in false modesty with reference to a competitor, Hooke, whom he despised. That fact alone ought to trouble the more revisionist historians of science. Indeed, "a slightly naughty thought" occurs to Hermann Bondi: "we may still be so much under the impression of the particular turn he took ... We cannot get it out of our system". Quite. This is a deft and elegant biography. Well recommended. Olly Buxton

Good read, learned a lot.

James Gleick has offered his readership a scientifically sanitised but predominantly human biography of Sir Isaac Newton. Even when a reader actually works within the world of physical sciences, mathematics or analysis (as I do myself), I believe that sometimes we all wish to understand more about the private life of great, infamous or notable doers and thinkers. Often in his field of work Newton was innovative and his theories were apt to be seminal. Calculus, light, motion, gravity, etc. all confirm his celebrated and deserved status. Additionally, although Gleick's book shows Newton to be idiosyncratic, particular of thought and almost toxically reclusive, Newton is also shown to be sufficiently self-aware to be able to accept and expound the notion that mankind was probably on the verge of exponential cerebral expansion. How right he was. Further, the author reveals Newton as the spiritually-aware scientist, who eventually himself came to believe, that he was merely bringing to light (pun intended) The Creator's own technical and mathematical system by which the whole stable edifice of the known universe was built; and upon the health and well-being of which the world's very continuation would depend. As a writer, Gleick excels himself in demonstrating Sir Isaac's paradoxically insular behaviour to peers and contemporaries whilst masking such a brilliantly extrovert mind containing such an unrivalled capacity for almost unbridled reason and accurate prognosis. The modern sub-atomic and algorithmically-charged machine-learning world today owes Newton so very much for pointing the way forward, but I believe readers have a debt also to Gleick for conjuring in homage Newton the man in an obviously admiring but readable style. If you are interested, then please see my reviews on 'Newton's Gift' (Berlinski) - offering some maths and science; 'Isaac Newton The Last Sorcerer,' (White) - offering biography and alchemical adventures; and also 'Newton and the Counterfeiter' (Levenson) - offering the lesser-known Newton as 'Royal Mint 'production director' and 'counter-counterfeiting sleuth and thief-taker.' Enjoy your Newtonian reading.

Gleick has written an entertaining, lively "Life", but when compared with Westfall's "The Life of Isaac Newton" it lacks useful detail.

This book gives great insight into not just the mind of Newton but the times in which he lived and the barriers not just to living but to producing such quality science and maths

Highly readable, well written compact account of the ultimate English genius. Would have liked more on his early years to the age of 26, especially his inexplicable blossoming as a mathematical genius in his mid 20's - alas probably little is known. He was of humble birth and not hot-housed in any way.

Really enjoyed this book. Felt like I really got know Newton and his legacy. Particularly enjoyed reading about Newton maneuvering through the math and science limitations of his time. The scholarship of this book is obvious. Very readable.

Gives an excellent and readable perspective on the scientific perception of the world before Newton and the astonishing impact he had on this.

I'm fairly well versed in science, and I've been impressed by everything I've read by James Gleick, so I place him in the top echelon of science writers. This excellent biography of Isaac Newton is no exception to that pattern. Newton was a scientist and thinker of nearly unparalleled brilliance and achievement, so there are many ways one could write his biography. Gleick chooses the tack of going with moderate length, and nicely balancing elements of Newton's personal history, personality, metaphysical assumptions, scientific methodology, scientific work, mathematical work, alchemical work, theological work, and relationships with colleagues. For me, this biography is as close to perfect as one could ask for. I particularly like Gleick's detailed descriptions of how Newton and others wrestled to define their basic terms and concepts in conjunction with marshalling all sorts of evidence and arguments in order to propose and defend a variety of hypotheses and theories. In that sense, this book superbly describes the difficult birth of the paradigm of classical physics, featuring Newton as the lead character during this pivotal historical period. After reading this biography, what are we to make of Newton? First of all, without a doubt, he was a genius at a level that few of us can scarcely comprehend, but he was still human, so he had his intellectual limitations and didn't always get things right. Secondly, he was a lonely figure, perhaps in part because of his upbringing. He was raised without a father and was distant from his mother, grew up poor (and died wealthy), had no wife or children (and apparently was a virgin), had no genuinely close friends, and routinely had strained relationships with his colleagues, sometimes to the point of bitter acrimony. All of this isolation may have focused his energy in a way that fundamentally contributed to his scientific acheivements, so one wonders what would have become of Newton (and world history) if he had lived a more "normal" life ... Anyway, I very highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Newton, science, physics, mathematics, early modern history, etc. The only real prerequisite I see is having at least a vague recollection of high-school physics. Also, the unabridged audiobook is narrated very smoothly and engagingly (with a British accent) by Alan Corduner, so don't hesitate to give that a try. I envision returning this biography in the future whenever I need a dose of inspiration.

Produto excelente. Recomendo a leitura.

Esta es una gran biografía científica. Es el segundo libro de James Gleick que leo, después de su titánica biografía de Feynman. Y comparándola con ella, esta biografía de Newton es una obra increíble. Es un ejemplo maravilloso de brevedad. Hay tanta información acerca de Newton: su carácter, su conocimiento enciclopédico de la biblia, su religiosidad, su obsesión con la experimentación, su paciencia y sus relaciones con los demás, que resulta increíble que esté condensada en tan pocas páginas. Una verdadera joya de libro.