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Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton was born in a stone farmhouse in 1642, fatherless and unwanted by his mother. When he died in London in 1727 he was so renowned he was given a state funeral—an unheard-of honor for a subject whose achievements were in the realm of the intellect. During the years he was an irascible presence at Trinity College, Cambridge, Newton imagined properties of nature and gave them names—mass, gravity, velocity—things our science now takes for granted. Inspired by Aristotle, spurred on by Galileo’s discoveries and the philosophy of Descartes, Newton grasped the intangible and dared to take its measure, a leap of the mind unparalleled in his generation.
James Gleick, the author of Chaos and Genius, and one of the most acclaimed science writers of his generation, brings the reader into Newton’s reclusive life and provides startlingly clear explanations of the concepts that changed forever our perception of bodies, rest, and motion. Ideas so basic to the twenty-first century we literally take them for granted.
James Gleick, the author of Chaos and Genius, and one of the most acclaimed science writers of his generation, brings the reader into Newton’s reclusive life and provides startlingly clear explanations of the concepts that changed forever our perception of bodies, rest, and motion. Ideas so basic to the twenty-first century we literally take them for granted.
272 pages, Paperback
First published May 13, 2003
About the author
James Gleick
39 books1,904 followersJames Gleick (born August 1, 1954) is an American author, journalist, and biographer, whose books explore the cultural ramifications of science and technology. Three of these books have been Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalists, and they have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Born in New York City, USA, Gleick attended Harvard College, graduating in 1976 with a degree in English and linguistics. Having worked for the Harvard Crimson and freelanced in Boston, he moved to Minneapolis, where he helped found a short-lived weekly newspaper, Metropolis. After its demise, he returned to New York and joined as staff of the New York Times, where he worked for ten years as an editor and reporter.
He was the McGraw Distinguished Lecturer at Princeton University in 1989-90. Gleick collaborated with the photographer Eliot Porter on Nature's Chaos and with developers at Autodesk on Chaos: The Software. In 1993, he founded The Pipeline, an early Internet service. Gleick is active on the boards of the Authors Guild and the Key West Literary Seminar.
His first book, Chaos: Making a New Science, an international best-seller, chronicled the development of chaos theory and made the Butterfly Effect a household phrase.
Among the scientists Gleick profiled were Mitchell Feigenbaum, Stephen Jay Gould, Douglas Hofstadter, Richard Feynman and Benoit Mandelbrot. His early reporting on Microsoft anticipated the antitrust investigations by the U. S. Department of Justice and the European Commission. Gleick's essays charting the growth of the Internet included the "Fast Forward" column on technology in the New York Times Magazine from 1995 to 1999 and formed the basis of his book What Just Happened. His work has also appeared in The New Yorker, the Atlantic, Slate, and the Washington Post.
Bibliography:
1987 Chaos: Making a New Science, Viking Penguin. (ISBN 0140092501)
1990 (with Eliot Porter) Nature's Chaos, Viking Penguin. (ISBN 0316609420)
1992 Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, Pantheon. (ISBN 0679747044)
1999 Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything, Pantheon. (ISBN 067977548X)
2000 (editor) The Best American Science Writing 2000, HarperCollins. (ISBN 0060957360)
2002 What Just Happened: A Chronicle from the Electronic Frontier, Pantheon. (ISBN 0375713913)
2003 Isaac Newton, Pantheon. (ISBN 1400032954)
2011 The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood. New York: Pantheon Books. (ISBN 9780375423727 )
Born in New York City, USA, Gleick attended Harvard College, graduating in 1976 with a degree in English and linguistics. Having worked for the Harvard Crimson and freelanced in Boston, he moved to Minneapolis, where he helped found a short-lived weekly newspaper, Metropolis. After its demise, he returned to New York and joined as staff of the New York Times, where he worked for ten years as an editor and reporter.
He was the McGraw Distinguished Lecturer at Princeton University in 1989-90. Gleick collaborated with the photographer Eliot Porter on Nature's Chaos and with developers at Autodesk on Chaos: The Software. In 1993, he founded The Pipeline, an early Internet service. Gleick is active on the boards of the Authors Guild and the Key West Literary Seminar.
His first book, Chaos: Making a New Science, an international best-seller, chronicled the development of chaos theory and made the Butterfly Effect a household phrase.
Among the scientists Gleick profiled were Mitchell Feigenbaum, Stephen Jay Gould, Douglas Hofstadter, Richard Feynman and Benoit Mandelbrot. His early reporting on Microsoft anticipated the antitrust investigations by the U. S. Department of Justice and the European Commission. Gleick's essays charting the growth of the Internet included the "Fast Forward" column on technology in the New York Times Magazine from 1995 to 1999 and formed the basis of his book What Just Happened. His work has also appeared in The New Yorker, the Atlantic, Slate, and the Washington Post.
Bibliography:
1987 Chaos: Making a New Science, Viking Penguin. (ISBN 0140092501)
1990 (with Eliot Porter) Nature's Chaos, Viking Penguin. (ISBN 0316609420)
1992 Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, Pantheon. (ISBN 0679747044)
1999 Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything, Pantheon. (ISBN 067977548X)
2000 (editor) The Best American Science Writing 2000, HarperCollins. (ISBN 0060957360)
2002 What Just Happened: A Chronicle from the Electronic Frontier, Pantheon. (ISBN 0375713913)
2003 Isaac Newton, Pantheon. (ISBN 1400032954)
2011 The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood. New York: Pantheon Books. (ISBN 9780375423727 )
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 503 reviews
May 28, 2019
It was a pleasure reading this book. the book has given an eneormous amount of information about the great name Newton. I can say before reading this book the man I knew but the story I didn't.
May 7, 2013
I read this to compliment my reading of Quiet by Susan Cain, thinking that studying the life of one of the most famous introverts will give me greater insight.
But all James Gleick provides is a cursory summary of Newton's work and hardly touches on his personal life and not at all on his character or personality. The book is also a history of the enlightenment age, the growth of the Royal Society, of the rivalries that drove its growth, and the role they played in transmission of information.
How can one understand a man willing to fill millions of words worth of pages with new and imaginative thrusts into the unknown, with no intention to publish and only giving them away in reluctant small portions; a man who took 30 years to publish his greatest work. Even after he became famous, he resorted to publishing under the cloak of anonymity about his own works as well as his critics.
Newton was told by his well-wishers that this withholding of his work only helped in losing recognition for himself and benefit for others. This was sadly illustrated when Leibniz published his own version of Calculus - this prompted Newton to finally bring out his own better and earlier version and start a fiery rivalry which overshadowed their achievements and constricted the growth of mathematics for almost a decade. But one good thing did came out of this - Newton started bringing out texts that he had kept hidden till then.
He was also a dedicated pursuer of biblical and ancient texts, convinced that the ancients knew secrets hidden in these symbolisms. Another strange fact was that Newton made more money from being in charge of the public money minting office than from his scientific enquiries - He was the one who standardized England’s currency and made major contributions to economics and public policy too.
The most intriguing part of the book is when Gleick details out Newton - The Alchemist, probably the greatest of the esoteric order. It was another of the various facets of his life and enquiry that he never made public and came to light only years after his death. This was in fact the cause of his death - the mercury poisoning that resulted from his fascinated constant handling of ‘quicksilver’ which he believed to be the essence of all metals.
While I cannot say that the book was of much use in aiding an understanding of Newton, the man, or that it was a detailed history of his thoughts and works, at the very least, I will never talk about how modern science killed Newtonian Physics. His vision of the universe was as metaphysical as the latest quantum advances, even though the most critics he ever had in his life was for these very metaphysical elements in his ‘Optics’.
He was careful to only present to the public those ideas which he could back up by experimentation, but this does not mean that this powerful mind did not explore and push the same boundaries that we now grapple with in the vast eternities of his solitude.
He was a scientist, alchemist, philosopher, epistemologist, economist, a theologian, and the last of the magicians; combining and distilling all of this vast knowledge into the simple truths that we all know today. Newton was a great of the modern age, not of a quaint age which we have surpassed as we like to imagine.
I would like to agree with Byron as he sang, "Man fell with apples; and with apples rose."
But all James Gleick provides is a cursory summary of Newton's work and hardly touches on his personal life and not at all on his character or personality. The book is also a history of the enlightenment age, the growth of the Royal Society, of the rivalries that drove its growth, and the role they played in transmission of information.
How can one understand a man willing to fill millions of words worth of pages with new and imaginative thrusts into the unknown, with no intention to publish and only giving them away in reluctant small portions; a man who took 30 years to publish his greatest work. Even after he became famous, he resorted to publishing under the cloak of anonymity about his own works as well as his critics.
Newton was told by his well-wishers that this withholding of his work only helped in losing recognition for himself and benefit for others. This was sadly illustrated when Leibniz published his own version of Calculus - this prompted Newton to finally bring out his own better and earlier version and start a fiery rivalry which overshadowed their achievements and constricted the growth of mathematics for almost a decade. But one good thing did came out of this - Newton started bringing out texts that he had kept hidden till then.
He was also a dedicated pursuer of biblical and ancient texts, convinced that the ancients knew secrets hidden in these symbolisms. Another strange fact was that Newton made more money from being in charge of the public money minting office than from his scientific enquiries - He was the one who standardized England’s currency and made major contributions to economics and public policy too.
The most intriguing part of the book is when Gleick details out Newton - The Alchemist, probably the greatest of the esoteric order. It was another of the various facets of his life and enquiry that he never made public and came to light only years after his death. This was in fact the cause of his death - the mercury poisoning that resulted from his fascinated constant handling of ‘quicksilver’ which he believed to be the essence of all metals.
While I cannot say that the book was of much use in aiding an understanding of Newton, the man, or that it was a detailed history of his thoughts and works, at the very least, I will never talk about how modern science killed Newtonian Physics. His vision of the universe was as metaphysical as the latest quantum advances, even though the most critics he ever had in his life was for these very metaphysical elements in his ‘Optics’.
He was careful to only present to the public those ideas which he could back up by experimentation, but this does not mean that this powerful mind did not explore and push the same boundaries that we now grapple with in the vast eternities of his solitude.
He was a scientist, alchemist, philosopher, epistemologist, economist, a theologian, and the last of the magicians; combining and distilling all of this vast knowledge into the simple truths that we all know today. Newton was a great of the modern age, not of a quaint age which we have surpassed as we like to imagine.
I would like to agree with Byron as he sang, "Man fell with apples; and with apples rose."
June 12, 2017
After fifty pages, I almost put this book down. At that point it was mostly calculations that I was hardly interested in and there was little about how Newton actually lived his life. I’m glad that I did keep reading because I found myself enjoying much of the later parts. He was celibate and he possibly never saw the ocean, yet he could understand the universe like no one before him. Newton was a genius and, because of him, it is hard to imagine how humans thought before him.
March 21, 2012
Isaac Newton was a wizard?!* I love that there was a time, only just a few hundred years ago, in which men attempted wizardy-like experiments, working magic if you will, in their attempts to turn lead into gold and what have you. That's awesome.
As a nice "getting to know you" leaping off point, Gleick's book is a good starter bio about Newton's life in general. It gives summary details of his theories and work without bogging the reader down too much. Anyone looking to do a study on Newton will need to dig a bit deeper than this.
* I stand by my comment, because if women could be condemned as witches and put to death for it, grown men who dabble in alchemy, revered as they may be, can and should be made to withstand the "wizard" label, for better or worse.
As a nice "getting to know you" leaping off point, Gleick's book is a good starter bio about Newton's life in general. It gives summary details of his theories and work without bogging the reader down too much. Anyone looking to do a study on Newton will need to dig a bit deeper than this.
* I stand by my comment, because if women could be condemned as witches and put to death for it, grown men who dabble in alchemy, revered as they may be, can and should be made to withstand the "wizard" label, for better or worse.
October 14, 2017
'Though Newton is no physicist, his book is very interesting...'
This quote from Newton's contemporary Nicolas Malebranche sums up much of Gleick's excellent biography. Newton is to us a towering figure, arguably the single greatest scientist who ever lived - in fact he was so influential that science as we know it owes an incalculable debt to his vision. He didn't so much invent the modern way of looking at the world as he tore down the existing worldview, categorically proved it to be lacking, and then single-handedly constructed a new view. To people like Malebranche, speaking of Newton's masterwork the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, this change was simply too much - Newton wasn't a scientist because he so radically redefined what the term even meant.
Gleick captures this cataclysm and rebirth in a way that is elegant, engaging, and entertaining. His prose is almost poetic in how much meaning is conveyed per word, and the book has the feel of a finely crafted work of art. It reads very easily while simultaneously communicating a huge amount of information - truly the holy grail of science communication.
The book provides a chronological biography of Newton, focusing less on the man himself and instead on his work - his letters, mathematics, and publications - letting the words speak for his personality. As is often the case with great scientists, it turns out that Newton was a bit of a dick. In corresponding with several recurring characters he shows himself to be cold, ruthless, and brilliant. A deep psychological analysis of his character is avoided here because that is available in other, weightier tomes that frankly after this I have no interest in reading. But enough is shown to convince at least this reviewer that Newton was a truly unique, strange individual.
This brings me to the best comparison I can make to this book - the excellent The Strangest Man by Graham Farmelo about Paul Dirac. Newton and Dirac were similar in many ways, and so are their biographies. Where Farmelo succeeds compared to Gleick however is that he introduces an overarching theme or narrative to the book, namely Dirac's relationship with his father. Such a narrative thread is rather lacking from Gleick's biography, which might be a consequence of trying to condense things down to a brief format. This does mean the book doesn't live up to it's full potential, but it's not far short.
A great biography, meticulously researched, beautifully written.
This quote from Newton's contemporary Nicolas Malebranche sums up much of Gleick's excellent biography. Newton is to us a towering figure, arguably the single greatest scientist who ever lived - in fact he was so influential that science as we know it owes an incalculable debt to his vision. He didn't so much invent the modern way of looking at the world as he tore down the existing worldview, categorically proved it to be lacking, and then single-handedly constructed a new view. To people like Malebranche, speaking of Newton's masterwork the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, this change was simply too much - Newton wasn't a scientist because he so radically redefined what the term even meant.
Gleick captures this cataclysm and rebirth in a way that is elegant, engaging, and entertaining. His prose is almost poetic in how much meaning is conveyed per word, and the book has the feel of a finely crafted work of art. It reads very easily while simultaneously communicating a huge amount of information - truly the holy grail of science communication.
The book provides a chronological biography of Newton, focusing less on the man himself and instead on his work - his letters, mathematics, and publications - letting the words speak for his personality. As is often the case with great scientists, it turns out that Newton was a bit of a dick. In corresponding with several recurring characters he shows himself to be cold, ruthless, and brilliant. A deep psychological analysis of his character is avoided here because that is available in other, weightier tomes that frankly after this I have no interest in reading. But enough is shown to convince at least this reviewer that Newton was a truly unique, strange individual.
This brings me to the best comparison I can make to this book - the excellent The Strangest Man by Graham Farmelo about Paul Dirac. Newton and Dirac were similar in many ways, and so are their biographies. Where Farmelo succeeds compared to Gleick however is that he introduces an overarching theme or narrative to the book, namely Dirac's relationship with his father. Such a narrative thread is rather lacking from Gleick's biography, which might be a consequence of trying to condense things down to a brief format. This does mean the book doesn't live up to it's full potential, but it's not far short.
A great biography, meticulously researched, beautifully written.
January 26, 2010
After reading Quicksilver, the first book in Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, I became very interested to learn more about some the historical figures around whom the story revolved – Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, John Wilkens, Christopher Wren, …, and Isaac Newton, the founders and early members of the Royal Society. Given my interest in physics, optics, and math, especially Isaac Newton.
Fortunately for me, James Gleick’s biography of Newton, simply titled Isaac Newton , was published earlier that year (2003). Gleick was not new to me – both Chaos: Making a New Science and Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, have a place on my bookshelves – so I had high hopes for his biography of Newton. I was not disappointed.
Chances are you’ve heard of Isaac Newton, if for nothing else than the fact that he came up with the idea of gravity when he saw an apple fall from a tree. (Which, by the way, is a vast oversimplification.) You may have even heard of his 3 laws of motion or that he invented – some might say discovered – the calculus. You may even think that he invented calculus so he could figure out his laws of motion. (As it turns out, he used geometry.)
Newton didn’t actually publish – or care to publish – his work in mathematics, or anything else, until someone else published similar work. Unlike the rest of the fellows of the Royal Society, who were interested in sharing their new found knowledge as much as possible, Newton experimented and discovered and wrote to satisfy his own curiosity, not that of anyone else. Only in the very recent past have the many documents of Newton come to light, and it is through these many documents that Gleick tells this unique story of arguably the greatest mind ever.
Considering the subject, the book is relatively short with just under 200 pages of main text and about 50 pages of notes. It is a pretty quick read, though I did find that flipping back and forth to the end notes tended to slow me down. And if you are looking for detailed discussion and analysis of the actual content of Newton’s various writings, this is not your book.
If, however, you want to gain an understanding of what drove Newton, of why he wanted to figure things out, and get a glimpse into his incredible mind, this is an excellent book with which to begin.
Fortunately for me, James Gleick’s biography of Newton, simply titled Isaac Newton , was published earlier that year (2003). Gleick was not new to me – both Chaos: Making a New Science and Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, have a place on my bookshelves – so I had high hopes for his biography of Newton. I was not disappointed.
Chances are you’ve heard of Isaac Newton, if for nothing else than the fact that he came up with the idea of gravity when he saw an apple fall from a tree. (Which, by the way, is a vast oversimplification.) You may have even heard of his 3 laws of motion or that he invented – some might say discovered – the calculus. You may even think that he invented calculus so he could figure out his laws of motion. (As it turns out, he used geometry.)
Newton didn’t actually publish – or care to publish – his work in mathematics, or anything else, until someone else published similar work. Unlike the rest of the fellows of the Royal Society, who were interested in sharing their new found knowledge as much as possible, Newton experimented and discovered and wrote to satisfy his own curiosity, not that of anyone else. Only in the very recent past have the many documents of Newton come to light, and it is through these many documents that Gleick tells this unique story of arguably the greatest mind ever.
Considering the subject, the book is relatively short with just under 200 pages of main text and about 50 pages of notes. It is a pretty quick read, though I did find that flipping back and forth to the end notes tended to slow me down. And if you are looking for detailed discussion and analysis of the actual content of Newton’s various writings, this is not your book.
If, however, you want to gain an understanding of what drove Newton, of why he wanted to figure things out, and get a glimpse into his incredible mind, this is an excellent book with which to begin.
March 19, 2020
Previous biographies I read have spoiled me, so that I can only say that this book is a competent little introduction to the life and work of Isaac Newton, that leaves me hungry for more. And I hear that "Never at rest" by Richard S. Westfall is excellent.
This is perfect light reading for these times.
This is perfect light reading for these times.
September 15, 2019
Crisp, concise, a great introduction that leaves you wanting to know more. Others seem to have found it dry, I found it gripping. Given that Newton had little or nothing by way of what we'd normally consider a 'personal life' I suspect a much longer biography would be tedious.
February 12, 2022
Isaac Newton é talvez a mais importante figura da história contemporânea pelo modo como conseguiu extrair da natureza um conjunto de regras abstratas que permitiram a Revolução Científica, base do Iluminismo, que por sua vez impactariam fortemente a Revolução Industrial e todo o posterior progresso tecnológico. Gleick dedica-lhe este livro, no qual faz uma boa introdução, mas podia ter ido mais fundo e mais longe.
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...continuar a ler no VI: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...
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...continuar a ler no VI: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...
December 26, 2007
This is a very compelling look at the life of an extraordinarily brilliant and complex man who profoundly influenced the course of modern history. Living as we do in an era when science and religion tend to be seen as fundamentally contradictory, it is fascinating to read of the curious young theologian who truly believed God's greatest wish was for humanity to discover the mechanisms that drive the movements of the universe—to, as Newton described it, transcend the finite boundaries of our being and reach toward infinity itself.
As in all writings on Newton, there is the requisite clarification of the mythology surrounding him—yes, he did spend much time in his uncle's apple orchard during his early twenties, when he began developing the new mathematics that would come be known as the calculus, and no, he did not "discover" gravity or incur any apple-induced head injuries. But mostly, Gleick's biography is a look at Newton's humanity, and the sometimes intriguing, sometimes revolting contradictions that defined his charismatic personality. One sees, for instance, Newton's all but pathological paranoia over others stealing his ideas, and then the disturbing irony that several of the most famous quotes attributed to him—indeed, those usually presented as evidence of his humility and nobility of spirit—were, in fact, almost entirely plagiarized from his predecessors.
Being a biography, this book is not primarily aimed at exploring the specifics of Newton's scientific or mathematical discoveries. However, one could no more write a biography of Newton without some discussion of mathematics than one could explain Mozart without reference to music. It is therefore helpful to have a small amount of familiarity with calculus and physics. That being said, there were scientific matters in the book that I didn't understand, and I didn't find that to be a problem.
Truly a fascinating story of an incredibly influential historical figure.
As in all writings on Newton, there is the requisite clarification of the mythology surrounding him—yes, he did spend much time in his uncle's apple orchard during his early twenties, when he began developing the new mathematics that would come be known as the calculus, and no, he did not "discover" gravity or incur any apple-induced head injuries. But mostly, Gleick's biography is a look at Newton's humanity, and the sometimes intriguing, sometimes revolting contradictions that defined his charismatic personality. One sees, for instance, Newton's all but pathological paranoia over others stealing his ideas, and then the disturbing irony that several of the most famous quotes attributed to him—indeed, those usually presented as evidence of his humility and nobility of spirit—were, in fact, almost entirely plagiarized from his predecessors.
Being a biography, this book is not primarily aimed at exploring the specifics of Newton's scientific or mathematical discoveries. However, one could no more write a biography of Newton without some discussion of mathematics than one could explain Mozart without reference to music. It is therefore helpful to have a small amount of familiarity with calculus and physics. That being said, there were scientific matters in the book that I didn't understand, and I didn't find that to be a problem.
Truly a fascinating story of an incredibly influential historical figure.
December 8, 2007
Newton was a very odd man. He once said that his greatest achievement was his lifetime of celibacy. An achievement indeed, but perhaps his optics and laws of motion have had a more lasting impact on the world.
Newton is without doubt one of the greatest geniuses of all time. But he was also more than a little eccentric. The warning, don't try this at home, clearly applies to his sticking things into his eye to see how it worked.
This book gives a very brief, but fascinating insight into the life of a man who quite literally changed the world.
Newton is without doubt one of the greatest geniuses of all time. But he was also more than a little eccentric. The warning, don't try this at home, clearly applies to his sticking things into his eye to see how it worked.
This book gives a very brief, but fascinating insight into the life of a man who quite literally changed the world.
December 22, 2020
For its elucidation of Newton's science, I would rate this book three stars. The narrative doesn't go deep enough to give me any real information -- just a general impression. For me, this was the Chinese food of science writing -- tempting, tasty, but I was left hungry.
But for its treatment of Newton's efforts in alchemy and his religious beliefs, I'd rate this book five stars. p. 106 "Through his alchemical study shines a vision of nature as life, not machine."
But for its treatment of Newton's efforts in alchemy and his religious beliefs, I'd rate this book five stars. p. 106 "Through his alchemical study shines a vision of nature as life, not machine."
March 26, 2019
When I was wondering which book to read next, James Gleick's biography of Isaac Newton leapt at me. At less than 200 pages, it wasn't too long, and so I read it in a couple of days.
This book covers all the important events in Isaac Newton's life, starting from his birth in a farm, when his father was no more, how he ended up in school, how he went to Cambridge University, how his career progressed from there, how he discovered the law of gravitation and the three laws of motion, how he invented Calculus, his spats with famous scientists of his time including Robert Hooke and Gottfried Leibniz, how he became the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics and later became a member of the Royal Society, how he later got the King's patronage and headed the Mint, and what happened after that.
James Gleick's style is natural and breezy and the book moves at an easy pace. It is very accessible to readers who find books on science challenging or who avoid such books. If I remember right, there is not a single equation in the book. I loved the depiction of the intellectual fights that Isaac Newton had with Robert Hooke and Gottfried Leibniz. My teenage self hated Robert Hooke and backed Newton in the first fight. But my teenage self also backed Leibniz against Newton in the second fight 😁 (Mostly because Leibniz' system of Calculus is what we use now, because it is far superior to Newton's system, which is cumbersome.) After reading this book now, I find my older and more mature self backing Newton in both the disputes. I don't know whether it is because Newton was the aggrieved party in both the disputes, or whether it is because the book is biased and leans towards Newton. I need to read more on this. The book also doesn't shy away from describing Newton's adventures in alchemy, and also some of the darker sides of Newton, like when he becomes the head of the Royal Society, and he runs it like an autocrat.
An interesting thing in the book which I couldn't stop thinking about was Newton's relationship with his mother. When Newton was born his father was no more and his mother was a widow. When he was three years old, his mother married a rich man. This rich man wanted a wife, but didn't want an add-on kid. So according to the arrangements made, Newton was left with his grandmother who brought him up, while his mother went to live with her new husband. Years later, when Newton was ten years old, the rich man died, and Newton's mother returned back. She was wealthy now as she had inherited her husband's money. The first thing she did after coming back was send Newton to school which was in a nearby town. Newton ended up boarding with the apothecary in that town and worked part-time there, while in school. When Newton was sixteen, his mother summoned him back home, and asked him to get started on his work as a farmer. Newton hated farm-related work and did badly. Then his mother's brother stepped in and helped Newton get into Cambridge. Even there, Newton's mother refused to sponsor Newton's education properly - he joined as a student in the lowest category. The students in this category 'earned their keep by menial service to other students, running errands, waiting on them at meals, and eating their leftovers'. Later, it appears that Newton and his mother kept up a correspondence which was polite and familial, and when his mother suffered from a serious illness, Newton left his work and came back home, and stayed with her till the end. It is a very interesting story of a family. Newton's mother doesn't come through with flying colours at all, in that story, because she avoided taking care of him when he was a child, but tried to make him take up responsibility and become a farmer when he became a teenager. This probably led to Newton being introverted, solitary and reclusive all his life - he was never attracted to women, he never married, and he never had close friends, except maybe one or two people in his later life. But his mother also sent him to school and later sent him to Cambridge. If she hadn't done that, Newton would have stayed in the farm and would have been a careless, below-average farmer. One of the greatest scientists of all time would have been lost in the depths of an English farm. So was Newton's mother a good parent or a bad parent? What do you think?
One of the amazing things that we discover through the book is that Isaac Newton was an ordinary person with respect to socio-economic circumstances. His father was an illiterate farmer. He was expected to become a farmer too. He didn't have access to books the way we do. Even when he joined Cambridge, he had one notebook. In those days, paper was valuable, because it was probably handmade, and it was a luxury, if you had one notebook. This was the world that the young Isaac Newton lived in. Living in this world, Newton discovered gravity and invented the beautiful, complex field of Calculus. Calculus was so far ahead of its time that most people didn't understand it. It is a challenging subject even today, nearly 350 years later - I struggled with Calculus when I first encountered it. As James Gleick describes at the beginning of the book - "I don't know what I may seem to the world, " Newton said before he died, "but, as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." An evocative simile, much quoted in the centuries that followed, but Newton never played in the seashore, boy or man. Born in a remote country village, the son of an illiterate farmer, he lived in an island nation and explained how the moon and the sun tug at the seas to create tides, but he probably never set eyes on the ocean. He understood the sea by abstraction and computation." It is amazing how someone who had so little could accomplish so much. It is so inspiring. It offers hope for the rest of us - that we don't need so much. We need just one or two fresh notebooks, some pens and pencils, some textbooks, some solitude and quiet, lots of intellectual curiosity and passion, and an inclination to work hard. If we have this, we can accomplish one or two things. I get goosebumps just thinking about this.
I loved James Gleick's biography of Isaac Newton. It is written in spare and breezy prose, the technical content is not too challenging, and the book is very accessible for a general reader.
Have you read this book? What do you think about it?
This book covers all the important events in Isaac Newton's life, starting from his birth in a farm, when his father was no more, how he ended up in school, how he went to Cambridge University, how his career progressed from there, how he discovered the law of gravitation and the three laws of motion, how he invented Calculus, his spats with famous scientists of his time including Robert Hooke and Gottfried Leibniz, how he became the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics and later became a member of the Royal Society, how he later got the King's patronage and headed the Mint, and what happened after that.
James Gleick's style is natural and breezy and the book moves at an easy pace. It is very accessible to readers who find books on science challenging or who avoid such books. If I remember right, there is not a single equation in the book. I loved the depiction of the intellectual fights that Isaac Newton had with Robert Hooke and Gottfried Leibniz. My teenage self hated Robert Hooke and backed Newton in the first fight. But my teenage self also backed Leibniz against Newton in the second fight 😁 (Mostly because Leibniz' system of Calculus is what we use now, because it is far superior to Newton's system, which is cumbersome.) After reading this book now, I find my older and more mature self backing Newton in both the disputes. I don't know whether it is because Newton was the aggrieved party in both the disputes, or whether it is because the book is biased and leans towards Newton. I need to read more on this. The book also doesn't shy away from describing Newton's adventures in alchemy, and also some of the darker sides of Newton, like when he becomes the head of the Royal Society, and he runs it like an autocrat.
An interesting thing in the book which I couldn't stop thinking about was Newton's relationship with his mother. When Newton was born his father was no more and his mother was a widow. When he was three years old, his mother married a rich man. This rich man wanted a wife, but didn't want an add-on kid. So according to the arrangements made, Newton was left with his grandmother who brought him up, while his mother went to live with her new husband. Years later, when Newton was ten years old, the rich man died, and Newton's mother returned back. She was wealthy now as she had inherited her husband's money. The first thing she did after coming back was send Newton to school which was in a nearby town. Newton ended up boarding with the apothecary in that town and worked part-time there, while in school. When Newton was sixteen, his mother summoned him back home, and asked him to get started on his work as a farmer. Newton hated farm-related work and did badly. Then his mother's brother stepped in and helped Newton get into Cambridge. Even there, Newton's mother refused to sponsor Newton's education properly - he joined as a student in the lowest category. The students in this category 'earned their keep by menial service to other students, running errands, waiting on them at meals, and eating their leftovers'. Later, it appears that Newton and his mother kept up a correspondence which was polite and familial, and when his mother suffered from a serious illness, Newton left his work and came back home, and stayed with her till the end. It is a very interesting story of a family. Newton's mother doesn't come through with flying colours at all, in that story, because she avoided taking care of him when he was a child, but tried to make him take up responsibility and become a farmer when he became a teenager. This probably led to Newton being introverted, solitary and reclusive all his life - he was never attracted to women, he never married, and he never had close friends, except maybe one or two people in his later life. But his mother also sent him to school and later sent him to Cambridge. If she hadn't done that, Newton would have stayed in the farm and would have been a careless, below-average farmer. One of the greatest scientists of all time would have been lost in the depths of an English farm. So was Newton's mother a good parent or a bad parent? What do you think?
One of the amazing things that we discover through the book is that Isaac Newton was an ordinary person with respect to socio-economic circumstances. His father was an illiterate farmer. He was expected to become a farmer too. He didn't have access to books the way we do. Even when he joined Cambridge, he had one notebook. In those days, paper was valuable, because it was probably handmade, and it was a luxury, if you had one notebook. This was the world that the young Isaac Newton lived in. Living in this world, Newton discovered gravity and invented the beautiful, complex field of Calculus. Calculus was so far ahead of its time that most people didn't understand it. It is a challenging subject even today, nearly 350 years later - I struggled with Calculus when I first encountered it. As James Gleick describes at the beginning of the book - "I don't know what I may seem to the world, " Newton said before he died, "but, as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." An evocative simile, much quoted in the centuries that followed, but Newton never played in the seashore, boy or man. Born in a remote country village, the son of an illiterate farmer, he lived in an island nation and explained how the moon and the sun tug at the seas to create tides, but he probably never set eyes on the ocean. He understood the sea by abstraction and computation." It is amazing how someone who had so little could accomplish so much. It is so inspiring. It offers hope for the rest of us - that we don't need so much. We need just one or two fresh notebooks, some pens and pencils, some textbooks, some solitude and quiet, lots of intellectual curiosity and passion, and an inclination to work hard. If we have this, we can accomplish one or two things. I get goosebumps just thinking about this.
I loved James Gleick's biography of Isaac Newton. It is written in spare and breezy prose, the technical content is not too challenging, and the book is very accessible for a general reader.
Have you read this book? What do you think about it?
May 1, 2011
A nondescript biography of Isaac Newton that nearly exemplifies what I'd consider to be an average book. There's no particular focus on one aspect of his life or another; it's a fairly straightforward treatment, almost like a long Wikipedia article, with many tidbits brought up here and there but no particular facet explored too deeply.
This is not in and of itself a problem but I think that if a writer wants to take this approach, he has to do a really good job of grabbing the reader by the collar and making his subject compelling. I don't think Gleick does this consistently. Occasionally promising items, such as his adversarial relationships with Hooke and Leibniz, his tendency towards secretiveness to the point of ciphering his findings in his correspondences, or his internal struggles with the doctrine of the Trinity, are too often briefly discussed and put aside. If you're going to take this approach, you need to make every anecdote and every remark memorable, lest you fall into a laundry-list pattern.
If I were Gleick, I would have focused around a really interesting idea that (like too many other things) he only mentions briefly, which is John Maynard Keynes's quotation that "Newton was not the first of the age of reason.... He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago." This is a great central theme - not merely Newton as the bridge between magic and science, but Newton himself belonging clearly on the ancients' side of that bridge. Subjects like Newton's intense religious struggles, his practice of alchemy, and the incipient disentanglement between philosophical metaphysics and modern physics would branch nicely from this idea. Perhaps this biography has already been written by someone prior to Gleick, but if it hasn't, it unfortunately wasn't written by him either.
This is not in and of itself a problem but I think that if a writer wants to take this approach, he has to do a really good job of grabbing the reader by the collar and making his subject compelling. I don't think Gleick does this consistently. Occasionally promising items, such as his adversarial relationships with Hooke and Leibniz, his tendency towards secretiveness to the point of ciphering his findings in his correspondences, or his internal struggles with the doctrine of the Trinity, are too often briefly discussed and put aside. If you're going to take this approach, you need to make every anecdote and every remark memorable, lest you fall into a laundry-list pattern.
If I were Gleick, I would have focused around a really interesting idea that (like too many other things) he only mentions briefly, which is John Maynard Keynes's quotation that "Newton was not the first of the age of reason.... He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago." This is a great central theme - not merely Newton as the bridge between magic and science, but Newton himself belonging clearly on the ancients' side of that bridge. Subjects like Newton's intense religious struggles, his practice of alchemy, and the incipient disentanglement between philosophical metaphysics and modern physics would branch nicely from this idea. Perhaps this biography has already been written by someone prior to Gleick, but if it hasn't, it unfortunately wasn't written by him either.
August 5, 2015
This is a fair, standard recap of Issac Newton's life. Gleick gives each discovered scientific principle its due. Newton's long career is documented well. He was Master of The Royal Mint for 30 years. Also on his extensive resume is President of The Royal Society. Newton wrote endlessly--most of his writings survive, even his first childhood notebook, with drawings. He bought it with his own money. His father died before Newton was born. His mother left the three year old Issac to her mother so she could remarry more easily.
What you know about Newton is true--his massive intelligence removed him from most joys and foibles of everyday life. In all the various meeting minutes and diary entries from associates, it is recorded that he laughed but once. The apple falling from his garden tree story that prompted Newton to devise the equations for gravity is here too. Heck with apples, Newton quickly went on to crack the code of the gravity that holds the planets in orbit.
This is the bio of someone living inside his mind--a tremendously gifted, extreme mind. Newton was not a people person. Confronting Newton on science, or even daily business, would anger him.
The book is popular length--this is not a 750 page treatise. I listened to the audiobook read by British actor Allan Corduner. At five CDs total, it is just long enough to do justice to this genius and does not wear out its welcome.
What you know about Newton is true--his massive intelligence removed him from most joys and foibles of everyday life. In all the various meeting minutes and diary entries from associates, it is recorded that he laughed but once. The apple falling from his garden tree story that prompted Newton to devise the equations for gravity is here too. Heck with apples, Newton quickly went on to crack the code of the gravity that holds the planets in orbit.
This is the bio of someone living inside his mind--a tremendously gifted, extreme mind. Newton was not a people person. Confronting Newton on science, or even daily business, would anger him.
The book is popular length--this is not a 750 page treatise. I listened to the audiobook read by British actor Allan Corduner. At five CDs total, it is just long enough to do justice to this genius and does not wear out its welcome.
December 10, 2010
I was enjoying this book, but it slowly bored me to death. Newton's work is (to put it very very mildly) really interesting and terribly significant. And there's lots of it. But writing about it without ever writing an equation makes it tedious to read. I just got bored.
And he had an interesting life too - rags to riches fairytale stuff. But we know so little about most of it and Gleick's made it so heavy with notes-at-the-back that I care less now than I did when I started the book.
Not enough detail in the science to make it worth reading for that; and not enough of the in depth biography style anecdote and intimate stuff to make it worth reading for that. I should have left it on the library shelf.
And he had an interesting life too - rags to riches fairytale stuff. But we know so little about most of it and Gleick's made it so heavy with notes-at-the-back that I care less now than I did when I started the book.
Not enough detail in the science to make it worth reading for that; and not enough of the in depth biography style anecdote and intimate stuff to make it worth reading for that. I should have left it on the library shelf.
July 19, 2018
อัตชีวประวัติของบุคลที่มีสีสันและดึงดูดที่สุดเท่าที่เคยอ่าน
ภาพจำเกี่ยวกับ”นิวตั้น”ในสมัยเป็นนักเรียน คือผู้ค้นพบแรงดึ���ดูดโดยแรงบันดาลใจจากแอปเปิ้ล พอได้อ่านเล่มนี้แล้วรู้สึกสมเพชประโยคข้างต้นมากๆ
นั่นเป็นคำพูดที่ลดทอน สเน่ห์ คุณค่า และความยิ่งใหญ่ในเรื่องราวของนิวตั้น จนไม่เหลือ
หนังสือเล่มนี้ควรถูกบรรจุไว้ในแบบเรียนด้วยซ้ำ มันตอบคำถามที่เด็กหลายๆคน เคย และอาจยังพร่ำถามอยู่ว่า เราเรียนวิชายากๆ อย่างแคลคูลัส และฟิสิกส์ไปทำไม? จะได้ใช้เหรอ?
เรื่องราวของ บิดาแห่งฟิสิกส์ผู้นี้บอกเราว่า “จินตการที่มาพร้อมความรู้” มีทั้งสเน่ห์ พลัง และ ประสิทธิภาพมากเกินกว่าที่เราคิดเยอะเลย
ภาพจำเกี่ยวกับ”นิวตั้น”ในสมัยเป็นนักเรียน คือผู้ค้นพบแรงดึ���ดูดโดยแรงบันดาลใจจากแอปเปิ้ล พอได้อ่านเล่มนี้แล้วรู้สึกสมเพชประโยคข้างต้นมากๆ
นั่นเป็นคำพูดที่ลดทอน สเน่ห์ คุณค่า และความยิ่งใหญ่ในเรื่องราวของนิวตั้น จนไม่เหลือ
หนังสือเล่มนี้ควรถูกบรรจุไว้ในแบบเรียนด้วยซ้ำ มันตอบคำถามที่เด็กหลายๆคน เคย และอาจยังพร่ำถามอยู่ว่า เราเรียนวิชายากๆ อย่างแคลคูลัส และฟิสิกส์ไปทำไม? จะได้ใช้เหรอ?
เรื่องราวของ บิดาแห่งฟิสิกส์ผู้นี้บอกเราว่า “จินตการที่มาพร้อมความรู้” มีทั้งสเน่ห์ พลัง และ ประสิทธิภาพมากเกินกว่าที่เราคิดเยอะเลย
April 4, 2019
Is a brief summary of his work and timeline, not much in details but here and there...on his wonderful achievements.
January 5, 2024
This book started off really quite slow, and I nearly abandoned it. I really don't like wasting my time on books (or anything for that matter) that I don't end up mostly enjoying. Since it is a relatively short book, I went ahead and kept on - and fortunately, it did get much better.
During the plague year (quarantine), Newton expanded on the mathematics of Archimedes and Descartes. He started out using basic algebra to determine the area under an infinite series converging on a limit which led him to inventing Calculus. Calculus was his gateway to understanding motion and developing the laws of motion that we take for granted today (and further expanded on Calculus - both the concepts of differentiation and integration).
Despite some of his nutty beliefs (like Alchemy), few people in the course of human history have made such exponential and comprehensive contributions to both mathematics and science as Newton. While many of his ideas have been updated or corrected as we have learned more (think relativity and quantum physics), many of his concepts remain entirely intact and are the bases of our fundamental understanding of nature and the universe.
During the plague year (quarantine), Newton expanded on the mathematics of Archimedes and Descartes. He started out using basic algebra to determine the area under an infinite series converging on a limit which led him to inventing Calculus. Calculus was his gateway to understanding motion and developing the laws of motion that we take for granted today (and further expanded on Calculus - both the concepts of differentiation and integration).
Despite some of his nutty beliefs (like Alchemy), few people in the course of human history have made such exponential and comprehensive contributions to both mathematics and science as Newton. While many of his ideas have been updated or corrected as we have learned more (think relativity and quantum physics), many of his concepts remain entirely intact and are the bases of our fundamental understanding of nature and the universe.
May 23, 2021
The book laid to rest the myth of the apple falling on Newton's head. The apocryphal story of his dog named Diamond accidentally knocking over a lit candle and setting fire to his papers is just that - apocryphal.
The acrimonious debate about who first discovered calculus still persists. Newton was first but did not publish. Leibniz published his work first and his notations came to be universally accepted and not Newton's.
The acrimonious debate about who first discovered calculus still persists. Newton was first but did not publish. Leibniz published his work first and his notations came to be universally accepted and not Newton's.
July 8, 2011
Perhaps I'm predisposed, keeping figures like Einstein and Feynman in mind, to the idea that great minds are inherently liberal. Not in politics necessarily, but in personality. It's hard to imagine someone of the intellectual stature of the inventor of the calculus and modern mechanics not being magnanimous, generous, giving and wanting to share his success with the world; being encouraging to fellows pursuing difficult questions and charitable in his political stances toward the accumulation and practice of new scientific knowledge. Gleick's cutting biography of Newton has disabused me of this notion.
Revealed through Mr. Newton's own personal correspondence and notes comes to light a figure that is craven, withdrawn, and as petty and vindictive as he was absolutely, stunningly, incomprehensibly brilliant. His mind and his achievements put into perspective what we might call "genius" by modern standards and force us to see how short that term falls. Around his work is built the edifice of modern science, a three hundred year quest formulated and enabled by the "tools" Newton created mostly in seclusion during the plague years 1665-1666 from his family home in Woolsthorpe. A more brooding significant historical figure can hardly be imagined, except perhaps for some of the later histories and accounts of the life of Lincoln.
I'd read some spurious anecdotes about Newton's proclivities form other historians of science, mainly Bill Bryson in his Brief History of Nearly Everything that created some cracks in the lustrous portrait we've painted of the legend since the time of his death, but Gleick's account delves much further to reveal just how unstable and truly friendless Newton was. Not that he was without admirers, though perhaps he accumulated those in far greater numbers after he was dead and not around to harangue, cajole, manipulate and condescend to them any more. He spent thirty-five years at Cambridge, most of them as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics and in the entire time there, produced not a single friend. He was introspective and fearful of the judgment of others to the point of hysteria at times, and his writings, painstakingly collected and organized by Gleick reveal it.
Gleick is a phenomenal historian of science in that he is perfectly comfortable with the ideas he is trying to convey as well as the historical impact of the ideas themselves. His prose fluctuates from the intimidatingly terse, in a Cormac McCarthy style of recounting, to the lofty and eloquent, elevating the figures of his narrative and their achievements to awe-inspring status. It's at once revelatory and myth-making - a balance of the real and pragmatic and the idyllic and I like it a lot. That being said, I think that the book's narrative also fluctuates between really captivating anecdotes and analysis to pages of quotations from Newton or his contemporaries that attempt to let them tell the story themselves with little analysis in between on the historical import of such events or happenings.
Having read The Information first, I can clearly see this book as a period of gestation for those later themes and ideas, particularly the role that information and it's effective communication was going to have on the technological and scientific developments that were to come. Of particular interest to Gleick again in this work is symbology - the connection between words, symbols and ideas and the literal things they represent. It's difficult to imagine talking about things like Newton's laws of mechanics without the proper terminology, which he had to invent, or re-appropriate from their common usage. Words like force, mass, gravity, all had to be redefined to fit into a new paradigm of motion broken free from the millennia long grip of Aristotelean philosophy. But whereas The Information had a unifying theme, this book does not. Granted, it is biography, the objective of which is to tell a life story. Perhaps it's a wonderful conceit that Gleick avoids making judgments on Newton and lets the man speak for himself across the centuries, but at the same time, I was hoping for more. What do we make of Newton? What place does he hold in history? Is he a fundamental figure that defines the beginning of the modern era in reason, science and mathematics? Was he the last of a line of animists who believed in magic and superstition (he was a devoted and secretive alchemist most of his life as well)? Was he a bridge between? The reader is left free to interpret his life on its own, but as such it feels more like an encyclopedic entry, or a tome of primary source material than an historical analysis.
Think this one is about three and a half stars for me, but I'll choose to be conservative and round down. I guess that makes it 3.4999. Still, a great book if all you know about Newton is what your math or physics teacher told you about in passing and the amount of work put in to the research for this book is no laughing matter at all. Gleick's bibliography and notes run almost seventy pages. He knows his stuff and he knows how to organize it and he's definitely cemented himself in my opinion is the finest science historian and commentator of the present era, a true successor to people like Thomas Khun.
Revealed through Mr. Newton's own personal correspondence and notes comes to light a figure that is craven, withdrawn, and as petty and vindictive as he was absolutely, stunningly, incomprehensibly brilliant. His mind and his achievements put into perspective what we might call "genius" by modern standards and force us to see how short that term falls. Around his work is built the edifice of modern science, a three hundred year quest formulated and enabled by the "tools" Newton created mostly in seclusion during the plague years 1665-1666 from his family home in Woolsthorpe. A more brooding significant historical figure can hardly be imagined, except perhaps for some of the later histories and accounts of the life of Lincoln.
I'd read some spurious anecdotes about Newton's proclivities form other historians of science, mainly Bill Bryson in his Brief History of Nearly Everything that created some cracks in the lustrous portrait we've painted of the legend since the time of his death, but Gleick's account delves much further to reveal just how unstable and truly friendless Newton was. Not that he was without admirers, though perhaps he accumulated those in far greater numbers after he was dead and not around to harangue, cajole, manipulate and condescend to them any more. He spent thirty-five years at Cambridge, most of them as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics and in the entire time there, produced not a single friend. He was introspective and fearful of the judgment of others to the point of hysteria at times, and his writings, painstakingly collected and organized by Gleick reveal it.
Gleick is a phenomenal historian of science in that he is perfectly comfortable with the ideas he is trying to convey as well as the historical impact of the ideas themselves. His prose fluctuates from the intimidatingly terse, in a Cormac McCarthy style of recounting, to the lofty and eloquent, elevating the figures of his narrative and their achievements to awe-inspring status. It's at once revelatory and myth-making - a balance of the real and pragmatic and the idyllic and I like it a lot. That being said, I think that the book's narrative also fluctuates between really captivating anecdotes and analysis to pages of quotations from Newton or his contemporaries that attempt to let them tell the story themselves with little analysis in between on the historical import of such events or happenings.
Having read The Information first, I can clearly see this book as a period of gestation for those later themes and ideas, particularly the role that information and it's effective communication was going to have on the technological and scientific developments that were to come. Of particular interest to Gleick again in this work is symbology - the connection between words, symbols and ideas and the literal things they represent. It's difficult to imagine talking about things like Newton's laws of mechanics without the proper terminology, which he had to invent, or re-appropriate from their common usage. Words like force, mass, gravity, all had to be redefined to fit into a new paradigm of motion broken free from the millennia long grip of Aristotelean philosophy. But whereas The Information had a unifying theme, this book does not. Granted, it is biography, the objective of which is to tell a life story. Perhaps it's a wonderful conceit that Gleick avoids making judgments on Newton and lets the man speak for himself across the centuries, but at the same time, I was hoping for more. What do we make of Newton? What place does he hold in history? Is he a fundamental figure that defines the beginning of the modern era in reason, science and mathematics? Was he the last of a line of animists who believed in magic and superstition (he was a devoted and secretive alchemist most of his life as well)? Was he a bridge between? The reader is left free to interpret his life on its own, but as such it feels more like an encyclopedic entry, or a tome of primary source material than an historical analysis.
Think this one is about three and a half stars for me, but I'll choose to be conservative and round down. I guess that makes it 3.4999. Still, a great book if all you know about Newton is what your math or physics teacher told you about in passing and the amount of work put in to the research for this book is no laughing matter at all. Gleick's bibliography and notes run almost seventy pages. He knows his stuff and he knows how to organize it and he's definitely cemented himself in my opinion is the finest science historian and commentator of the present era, a true successor to people like Thomas Khun.
December 10, 2018
อ่านฉบับแปลโดยคุณสฤณีครับ ส่วนตัวแล้วผมว่าอ่านยากนิดนึงนะ อาจเป็นเพราะตัวต้นฉบับภาษาอังกฤษเลือกเฟ้นคำที่แปลตรงตัวได้ยาก แต่เนื้อเรื่องโดยรวมก็อ่านเพลินๆ ดีครับ ได้เห็นภาพความเป็นมนุษย์ของไอแซค นิวตัว รวมถึงเกร็ดปกิณกะที่รายล้อมเรื่องราวของเขา
ส่วนที่ผมว่าสนุกคือบรรยากาศของวิทยาศาสตร์ในยุคแรกเริ่ม ที่อ่านแล้วให้ความรู้สึกเหมือนตอนเล่นเกมส์ New Sciences จริงๆ
ส่วนที่ผมว่าสนุกคือบรรยากาศของวิทยาศาสตร์ในยุคแรกเริ่ม ที่อ่านแล้วให้ความรู้สึกเหมือนตอนเล่นเกมส์ New Sciences จริงๆ
October 23, 2011
A first rate biography of Isaac Newton. The biography is a relatively short, standard cradle-to-grave account, with significant discussions of Newton's scientific thinking and discoveries, starting with mathematics, then optics, and finally physics -- not counting alchemy, biblical studies, and his role as master of the mint.
James Gleick puts you directly into Newton's life and world through extensive quotations from letters and other documents, all with the original spellings. In some cases, like Newton's playing with infinite sums, Gleick reproduces a facsimile of the document itself.
No scientific life I know is as full of bitter rivalries, secrecy, and a continuum from the ultra-rational to the completely irrational. Towards the end of the book Gleick quotes Keynes' apt description of Newton: "Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago."
James Gleick puts you directly into Newton's life and world through extensive quotations from letters and other documents, all with the original spellings. In some cases, like Newton's playing with infinite sums, Gleick reproduces a facsimile of the document itself.
No scientific life I know is as full of bitter rivalries, secrecy, and a continuum from the ultra-rational to the completely irrational. Towards the end of the book Gleick quotes Keynes' apt description of Newton: "Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago."
May 25, 2017
Prior to reading this book the only things I knew (or thought I knew) about Newton was that he "discovered gravity" when an apple hit him in the head, and that he was knighted by the British Empire, and that he probably figured out a lot of other math and science things. So, two of the three are right. Gravity wasn't "discovered" by anyone, it was just defined, and Newton himself refuted the apple story in his lifetime. So much for science according to Saturday morning cartoons. I also didn't realize how long ago Newton lived, people were still debating whether the earth was round or flat in the 1600's (er, and in the 2000-teens...ahem) and didn't know that the tides and the moon were linked, or about any kind of waves other than the ones on the seashore (light waves, radio waves, sound waves, etc). Newton was a scary-smart genius who was self-taught, he was also the first of the Smart Dead Guys to acknowledge that his progress in philosophy, math, and science was due to studying those who came before him. The quote about "standing on the shoulders of giants" is from him.
August 1, 2018
Newton is not much less of a cypher to me after reading this than he was before, which is unfortunate, because what I really wanted was insight into his character. I'm left with the impression of a man with a big, fragile ego, much less a scientist in the modern sense than I expected because of his reluctance to publish his results, despite his obvious genius, which has come to shape our modern world philosophically and technologically.
I don't know if Gleick chose not to focus on character or if there isn't much evidence, but if you want the bare facts of Newton's life and what he acheived, then this book will give you them in a compact, digestible form.
I don't know if Gleick chose not to focus on character or if there isn't much evidence, but if you want the bare facts of Newton's life and what he acheived, then this book will give you them in a compact, digestible form.
January 12, 2011
Information was not communicated well (midway through what I consider a normally attentive reading I was unable to answer questions about what his stepfather did and whether he had siblings). It wasn't clear what were his major accomplishments - nowhere does it say "first optics, then calculus, now gravity" (are those them? Did I get them in the right order?) The book reads too much like a journal, "in the shit" the whole time with little attention to the past and future. I feel like the author hasn't mastered the material. Then again maybe I just don't read well.
January 24, 2013
Woww... Ternyata... Isaac Newton itu begitu yaa... Seringkali lintasan-lintasan komen kecil macam itu terbetik ketika membaca buku ini. Tidak menyesal jadi membeli buku ini (pada awalnya sempat ragu karena tak yakin ini buku bakal mengulas sosok Newton di sebelah mananya, dan tak punya referensi apa pun, hanya melihat buku ini di suatu stand pameran buku). Di lihat dari judulnya, "Misteri Apel Newton", terjemahan dari buku berjudul asli "Isaac Newton" karya James Gleick ini memang membuat buku ini agak kurang transparan mengenai apa kira-kira isinya. Plus sub judul dibawahnya yang berbunyi : Kisah Pergulatan Seorang Isaac Newton memberikan kesan ambigu juga, apakah yang dimaksud "kisah" disini adalah kisah hidup alias biografi ataukah kisah novel (biografi yang difiksikan). Dan ternyata...
Ini adalah sebuah buku biografi tentang Isaac Newton, ilmuwan besar sepanjang masa yang mendapat peringkat-2 dalam buku 100 Tokoh Paling Berpengaruh dalam Sejarah-nya Michael Hart setelah Nabi Muhammad (mengalahkan peringkat Yesus). Jenius yang lahir pada masa yang masih serba gelap. Si penyendiri yang masih penuh teka-teki. Di buku ini, James Gleick menyajikan Newton dengan cara yang menarik. Tersusun atas hasil telaah terhadap dokumen-dokumen, surat-surat pribadi, buku-buku catatan Newton, & seabreg referensi lainnya, membaca buku ini ibarat memasuki gerbang masa lalu, tahun-tahun kelam yang masih menyelimuti Eropa pada abad 17-18an, dan menyelami alur pemikiran Newton, waktu ke waktu, berikut emosi-emosi yang kadang menyertainya.
Buku ini mengungkap lebih banyak daripada "sekadar" Newton sebagai matematikawan & fisikawan brilian. Tentu saja, alur pemikiran Newton dalam bidang ini diungkap perlahan, mulai dari pertanyaan-pertanyaan filosofis yang menghinggapi pikiran Newton muda (dan dicatat dalam buku catatannya), minat & antusiasme tinggi dalam mengamati fenomena-fenomena alam sehari-hari, pencarian jawaban & bukti-bukti, juga kesulitan-kesulitan (karena kurangnya data atau keterbatasan kosakata yang tepat untuk menamai suatu istilah saintifik yang belum ada, misalnya) hingga kemudian perdebatan-perdebatan yang sebagian diantaranya berkepanjangan dengan ilmuwan-ilmuwan lain yang berbeda pandangan. Semua ini, rangkaian pencarian jawaban atas pertanyaan-pertanyaan filosofis tentang alam ini digambarkan cukup mendetail melatari proses lahirnya mahakarya Newton, Prinsipia, juga Opticks. Membuat kita seperti menyaksikan perjuangan panjang Newton memecahkan teka-teki pergerakan benda-benda, juga misteri tentang cahaya & warna-warna. Yang mengesankan adalah, gaya tutur buku ini dalam meng-guide "tur ke alam pemikiran Newton" ini cukup indah, dan filosofis (entah mungkin karena esensi filsafat alam itu sendiri memang filosofis), misalnya ketika menggambarkan pencarian solusi untuk gerak benda-benda, ketika fondasi metode kalkulus (yang belum lagi bernama) mulai tercetus. Ini membuat kita menyadari (kembali) bahwa esensi dari apa yang kini telah terumuskan dalam sebuah persamaan matematis ternyata tidaklah semembosankan kelihatannya.
Lalu, bagaimana dengan apel? Judulnya memang menggelitik, karena selama ini apel seperti menjadi ikon untuk inspirasi Newton dalam menemukan gaya gravitasi. Setidaknya begitulah mitos berkata, bahwa Newton menyadari gaya gravitasi ketika melihat apel terjatuh (?). Yah, tidaklah sesederhana itu juga. Kenyataannya, penemuan konsep gravitasi universal memerlukan jalan yang demikian panjang. Tapi kalau melihat isi buku ini yang ternyata bukan tentang misteri apel-nya Newton :D, secara harfiah, judul itu jadi punya daya tarik lain, karena kini ia bisa dipandang sebagai simbol. Simbol yang kuat, yang bisa saja ditafsirkan sebagai misteri pemikiran Newton. Karena sebagai buku biografi, yang paling banyak mengambil porsi adalah tentang rangkaian pemikirannya.
Kalau bukan "sekadar" matematikawan & fisikawan, lalu ini buku tentang sosok Newton yang mananya lagi? Yups, ternyata Newton itu banyak sekali minatnya. Dia berminat juga pada ilmu Alkimia (bukan kimia, waktu itu kimia belum ada). Alkimia itu seni yang misterius (& tertutup), yang karena sifatnya itu bahkan tidak sesuai untuk dikategorikan sebagai sains. Bukannya condong pada sifat ilmiah, Alkimia malah lebih condong pada sifat mistik (atau magis?). Selain berupaya mengubah logam-logam menjadi emas, ada pula upaya membuat "philosopher's stone" (Jadi inget Harry Potter :D). Ketika manuskrip-manuskrip alkimia milik Newton ditemukan, fakta ini mencengangkan.
Hal mencengangkan bagi sebagian besar orang lainnya yang menyangka Newton seorang rasionalis sejati adalah minatnya pada teologi. Newton sangat kritis pada agamanya sendiri, meragukan konsep trinitas, bahkan meneliti dengan serius keotentikan Al-kitab, mencerca para pendeta atau paus yang dianggapnya menambah-nambahkan & menyelewengkan isi Al-kitab. Tentu saja semua ini terungkap dari dokumen-dokumen pribadi yang dirahasiakan Newton, mengingat pemikiran bid'ah semacam itu bisa membuatnya terancam jika sampai ketahuan. Paradoksnya, seperti yang diungkap buku ini, semakin ia meneliti & kritis, semakin ia beriman sekaligus bid'ah. Mungkin penemuan manuskrip-manuskrip semacam itu yang menginspirasi Novel Da Vinci Code? Bahwa Newton anggota perkumpulan sekte rahasia?
Sosok Newton ini memang dikatakan sebagai salah satu tokoh paling misterius dalam sejarah. Tak heran, menyimak bagaimana kepribadian Newton yang penyendiri, tidak suka publikasi, dan lebih senang menghabiskan sebagian besar waktunya untuk bekerja sendiri, dan berjuang sendiri memuaskan dahaga akan ilmu pengetahuannya yang demikian besar. Karena tidak suka publikasi ini, banyak sekali tulisan-tulisan buah pemikirannya jauh sebelum Prinsipia lahir yang hanya bertumpuk untuk koleksi pribadinya. Ini juga yang nantinya jadi pemicu polemik panjang dengan Leibniz soal siapa penemu kalkulus yang sebenarnya. Perang debat antar-ilmuwan ini dipaparkan di buku ini dengan cukup seru :D. Apalagi mengenai bentrokan pendapat & saling serang lewat tulisan dengan musuh bebuyutannya, Robert Hooke, yang tampaknya di mata Newton begitu menyebalkan dan selalu membuatnya marah. Kadang-kadang membaca emosi & sikap arogansi pada bagian ini cukup lucu juga, mengingat pertengkaran panjang itu kadang terasa kekanakan, untuk ukuran seorang ilmuwan besar jenius. Tetapi begitulah salah satu sisi manusiawi sosok Newton. Pernah pula depresi berat hingga di ambang kegilaan.
Terlepas dari berbagai keterbatasan manusiawinya yang niscaya, tak dapat dipungkiri, andilnya dalam perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan memang begitu besar. Dan teorinya, mekanika klasik, meskipun kini telah "terkalahkan" oleh teori fisika kuantum, telah membawa revolusi besar dalam sejarah kehidupan manusia, memang tak terbantahkan.
"Alam dan hukum alam tersembunyi di balik malam.
Tuhan berkata, biarlah Newton ada! Dan semuanya akan terang benderang".
(salah satu puisi yang menyanjung Newton)
Selain memperkenalkan banyak sisi Newton, buku ini juga membuat kita menyimak reaksi orang-orang pada zamannya ketika ide-ide baru tentang filsafat alam yang "di luar bayangan siapa pun" dikemukakan. Prinsipia, misalnya, seperti halnya penulisnya sendiri, begitu terkenal. Tak hanya menuai sanjungan, tetapi juga penolakan dan cibiran. Prinsip-prinsip matematisnya memang akurat, tetapi ide bahwa gerakan benda-benda di angkasa dikendalikan oleh "gaya-gaya tak kelihatan" masih membuat sebagian orang shock, terlalu mengerikan & menganggapnya takhayul. Menyimak Newton & jamannya, membuat kita juga mengintip sedikit sejarah perkumpulan ilmiah Royal Society, karena Newton pernah turut meramaikannya & belakangan menjadi ketuanya. Jadinya buku ini tak hanya mengajak kita "tur pemikiran", tapi juga "tur sejarah". :)
Ini adalah sebuah buku biografi tentang Isaac Newton, ilmuwan besar sepanjang masa yang mendapat peringkat-2 dalam buku 100 Tokoh Paling Berpengaruh dalam Sejarah-nya Michael Hart setelah Nabi Muhammad (mengalahkan peringkat Yesus). Jenius yang lahir pada masa yang masih serba gelap. Si penyendiri yang masih penuh teka-teki. Di buku ini, James Gleick menyajikan Newton dengan cara yang menarik. Tersusun atas hasil telaah terhadap dokumen-dokumen, surat-surat pribadi, buku-buku catatan Newton, & seabreg referensi lainnya, membaca buku ini ibarat memasuki gerbang masa lalu, tahun-tahun kelam yang masih menyelimuti Eropa pada abad 17-18an, dan menyelami alur pemikiran Newton, waktu ke waktu, berikut emosi-emosi yang kadang menyertainya.
Buku ini mengungkap lebih banyak daripada "sekadar" Newton sebagai matematikawan & fisikawan brilian. Tentu saja, alur pemikiran Newton dalam bidang ini diungkap perlahan, mulai dari pertanyaan-pertanyaan filosofis yang menghinggapi pikiran Newton muda (dan dicatat dalam buku catatannya), minat & antusiasme tinggi dalam mengamati fenomena-fenomena alam sehari-hari, pencarian jawaban & bukti-bukti, juga kesulitan-kesulitan (karena kurangnya data atau keterbatasan kosakata yang tepat untuk menamai suatu istilah saintifik yang belum ada, misalnya) hingga kemudian perdebatan-perdebatan yang sebagian diantaranya berkepanjangan dengan ilmuwan-ilmuwan lain yang berbeda pandangan. Semua ini, rangkaian pencarian jawaban atas pertanyaan-pertanyaan filosofis tentang alam ini digambarkan cukup mendetail melatari proses lahirnya mahakarya Newton, Prinsipia, juga Opticks. Membuat kita seperti menyaksikan perjuangan panjang Newton memecahkan teka-teki pergerakan benda-benda, juga misteri tentang cahaya & warna-warna. Yang mengesankan adalah, gaya tutur buku ini dalam meng-guide "tur ke alam pemikiran Newton" ini cukup indah, dan filosofis (entah mungkin karena esensi filsafat alam itu sendiri memang filosofis), misalnya ketika menggambarkan pencarian solusi untuk gerak benda-benda, ketika fondasi metode kalkulus (yang belum lagi bernama) mulai tercetus. Ini membuat kita menyadari (kembali) bahwa esensi dari apa yang kini telah terumuskan dalam sebuah persamaan matematis ternyata tidaklah semembosankan kelihatannya.
Lalu, bagaimana dengan apel? Judulnya memang menggelitik, karena selama ini apel seperti menjadi ikon untuk inspirasi Newton dalam menemukan gaya gravitasi. Setidaknya begitulah mitos berkata, bahwa Newton menyadari gaya gravitasi ketika melihat apel terjatuh (?). Yah, tidaklah sesederhana itu juga. Kenyataannya, penemuan konsep gravitasi universal memerlukan jalan yang demikian panjang. Tapi kalau melihat isi buku ini yang ternyata bukan tentang misteri apel-nya Newton :D, secara harfiah, judul itu jadi punya daya tarik lain, karena kini ia bisa dipandang sebagai simbol. Simbol yang kuat, yang bisa saja ditafsirkan sebagai misteri pemikiran Newton. Karena sebagai buku biografi, yang paling banyak mengambil porsi adalah tentang rangkaian pemikirannya.
Kalau bukan "sekadar" matematikawan & fisikawan, lalu ini buku tentang sosok Newton yang mananya lagi? Yups, ternyata Newton itu banyak sekali minatnya. Dia berminat juga pada ilmu Alkimia (bukan kimia, waktu itu kimia belum ada). Alkimia itu seni yang misterius (& tertutup), yang karena sifatnya itu bahkan tidak sesuai untuk dikategorikan sebagai sains. Bukannya condong pada sifat ilmiah, Alkimia malah lebih condong pada sifat mistik (atau magis?). Selain berupaya mengubah logam-logam menjadi emas, ada pula upaya membuat "philosopher's stone" (Jadi inget Harry Potter :D). Ketika manuskrip-manuskrip alkimia milik Newton ditemukan, fakta ini mencengangkan.
Hal mencengangkan bagi sebagian besar orang lainnya yang menyangka Newton seorang rasionalis sejati adalah minatnya pada teologi. Newton sangat kritis pada agamanya sendiri, meragukan konsep trinitas, bahkan meneliti dengan serius keotentikan Al-kitab, mencerca para pendeta atau paus yang dianggapnya menambah-nambahkan & menyelewengkan isi Al-kitab. Tentu saja semua ini terungkap dari dokumen-dokumen pribadi yang dirahasiakan Newton, mengingat pemikiran bid'ah semacam itu bisa membuatnya terancam jika sampai ketahuan. Paradoksnya, seperti yang diungkap buku ini, semakin ia meneliti & kritis, semakin ia beriman sekaligus bid'ah. Mungkin penemuan manuskrip-manuskrip semacam itu yang menginspirasi Novel Da Vinci Code? Bahwa Newton anggota perkumpulan sekte rahasia?
Sosok Newton ini memang dikatakan sebagai salah satu tokoh paling misterius dalam sejarah. Tak heran, menyimak bagaimana kepribadian Newton yang penyendiri, tidak suka publikasi, dan lebih senang menghabiskan sebagian besar waktunya untuk bekerja sendiri, dan berjuang sendiri memuaskan dahaga akan ilmu pengetahuannya yang demikian besar. Karena tidak suka publikasi ini, banyak sekali tulisan-tulisan buah pemikirannya jauh sebelum Prinsipia lahir yang hanya bertumpuk untuk koleksi pribadinya. Ini juga yang nantinya jadi pemicu polemik panjang dengan Leibniz soal siapa penemu kalkulus yang sebenarnya. Perang debat antar-ilmuwan ini dipaparkan di buku ini dengan cukup seru :D. Apalagi mengenai bentrokan pendapat & saling serang lewat tulisan dengan musuh bebuyutannya, Robert Hooke, yang tampaknya di mata Newton begitu menyebalkan dan selalu membuatnya marah. Kadang-kadang membaca emosi & sikap arogansi pada bagian ini cukup lucu juga, mengingat pertengkaran panjang itu kadang terasa kekanakan, untuk ukuran seorang ilmuwan besar jenius. Tetapi begitulah salah satu sisi manusiawi sosok Newton. Pernah pula depresi berat hingga di ambang kegilaan.
Terlepas dari berbagai keterbatasan manusiawinya yang niscaya, tak dapat dipungkiri, andilnya dalam perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan memang begitu besar. Dan teorinya, mekanika klasik, meskipun kini telah "terkalahkan" oleh teori fisika kuantum, telah membawa revolusi besar dalam sejarah kehidupan manusia, memang tak terbantahkan.
"Alam dan hukum alam tersembunyi di balik malam.
Tuhan berkata, biarlah Newton ada! Dan semuanya akan terang benderang".
(salah satu puisi yang menyanjung Newton)
Selain memperkenalkan banyak sisi Newton, buku ini juga membuat kita menyimak reaksi orang-orang pada zamannya ketika ide-ide baru tentang filsafat alam yang "di luar bayangan siapa pun" dikemukakan. Prinsipia, misalnya, seperti halnya penulisnya sendiri, begitu terkenal. Tak hanya menuai sanjungan, tetapi juga penolakan dan cibiran. Prinsip-prinsip matematisnya memang akurat, tetapi ide bahwa gerakan benda-benda di angkasa dikendalikan oleh "gaya-gaya tak kelihatan" masih membuat sebagian orang shock, terlalu mengerikan & menganggapnya takhayul. Menyimak Newton & jamannya, membuat kita juga mengintip sedikit sejarah perkumpulan ilmiah Royal Society, karena Newton pernah turut meramaikannya & belakangan menjadi ketuanya. Jadinya buku ini tak hanya mengajak kita "tur pemikiran", tapi juga "tur sejarah". :)
January 15, 2018
تاثیرات ایزاک نیوتون در دنیا اینقدر بزرگ و بی شمار بوده که قلم در وصفشون عاجزه......، او مفهوم گرانش عمومی را مطرح ساخت و با تشریح قوانین حرکت اجسام، علم مکانیک کلاسیک را پایه گذاشت. از دیگر کارهای مهم او بنیانگذاری حساب دیفرانسیل و انتگرال است. او نخستین کسی است که قواعد طبیعی حاکم بر گردشهای زمینی و آسمانی را کشف کرد.
من نمی دانم كه جهان مرا چه می داند؟ اما من خود را مانند كودكی می بینم كه در كنار ساحل،سرگرم بازی است و گاه و بیگاه با یافتن سنگ ریزه ها و یا گوش ماهی های زیباتر و صافتر از حد معمول، خوشحال می شود؛ حال آنكه اقیانوس بزرگ حقیقت همچنان كشف نشده پیش رویم گسترده است .
من نمی دانم كه جهان مرا چه می داند؟ اما من خود را مانند كودكی می بینم كه در كنار ساحل،سرگرم بازی است و گاه و بیگاه با یافتن سنگ ریزه ها و یا گوش ماهی های زیباتر و صافتر از حد معمول، خوشحال می شود؛ حال آنكه اقیانوس بزرگ حقیقت همچنان كشف نشده پیش رویم گسترده است .
May 20, 2021
i want to be able to write like james gleick one day
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