Isaac Newton
written by James Gleick
written by James Gleick
Isaac Newton – by James Gleick
“Let no one suppose that the mighty work of Newton can really be
superceded by this or any other theory. His great and lucid ideas will retain
their unique significance for all time as the foundation of our whole modern
conceptual structure in the sphere of natural philosophy.” – Albert Einstein
(1919) – quoted in Isaac Newton.
When most people hear the name Isaac Newton, they are reminded of apples
falling from trees or Newton’s “Laws of Motion” or Newton’s “Law of Gravity.”
Isaac Newton, by James Gleick, will forever replace that imperfect
understanding with a new picture rich in detail and full of appreciation for
how truly remarkable, insightful and complex a life this great philosopher and
scholar actually lived.
James Gleick, who popularized chaos theory in his 1987 work Chaos –
Making a New Science, brings his clear and readable style to bear on Isaac
Newton’s life, his eccentricities, his discoveries and his rivalries. In recounting
Newton’s early years, Gleick highlights Newton’s burgeoning fascination with
sunlight and sun dials and the sun’s changing position in the sky in
synchronous with the changing seasons. He learned the tools and techniques
of elementary chemistry while boarding with the apothecary William Clarke.
Newton’s intellectual curiosity grew, but it was unguided. At age 19, he
entered the University of Cambridge. He read the works of Aristotle,
Descartes and Galileo and began to develop his own sense of a scientific
method. He began to write down his own original ideas, the beginnings of a
new natural philosophy, a fresh description of nature. He thought about the
composition of matter, the nature of time and motion, the character of light.
He began to speculate about the tendency of objects to rise or descend, the
dawning of a concept of gravity.
In 1665-1666, the plague ravaged England. Newton was forced into
isolation, and by 1666 at the age of 24, Newton had laid the foundation for a
new mathematics of change – calculus. Gleick’s renders a marvelous
description of this period in Newton’s life, with insightful descriptions into the
thought process and chains of reasoning that led Newton to this quantum
leap in mathematical thinking. Having whetted the appetite, Gleick in the
same manner then describes Newton’s developing understanding of the
behavior of objects in motion and, ultimately, of gravity. Gleick reminds us
that these theories took form over time while hinting at Newton’s enigmatic
behavior: “Nor did Newton comprehend universal gravitation in a flash of
insight. In 1666 he was barely beginning to understand. What he suspected
about gravity he kept private for decades to come.”
Isaac Newton is much more than an account of the invention of calculus or
the laws of motion or a theory of gravitation. Integral to the story,
influencing its outcome, were Newton’s dealings and interactions with the
Royal Society of London, a clearinghouse of sorts for scientific information,
and his rivalries with contemporary experimentalist Robert Hooke and
mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, among others. This culminated in 1686 in
the writing of his revolutionary work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia
Mathematica in which Newton set forth his complete description of the
clockwork of nature. Not until Einstein’s monumental scientific breakthroughs
in the early twentieth century would the world experience such a spectacular
triumph of the Human intellect.
Of course, Gleick’s narrative is as much about Newton himself as it is about
Newton’s scientific achievements. Gleick skillfully weaves the details of
Newton’s personality and belief structure into and around the science,
providing context and insight into how these elements influenced both
Newton’s reasoning and his progress. The book is also thoroughly
researched with over fifty pages of notes and sources.
Without a doubt, James Gleick has written an exceptional and intriguing
account of Isaac Newton’s transformation of the scientific world of his time,
from the perspective of the driving forces in Newton’s life and personality
couched in the times in which he lived. Now, about that apple …….
Isaac Newton (Paperback/272 pages; June 2004; Randomhouse, Inc.) will
make a terrific gift for anyone interested in science, the history of science, Isaac
Newton, calculus, the laws of motion, the law of gravity, light, tides and related
subject matter. Retail price $13.00. Available on-line at BarnesandNoble.com
for $11.70.
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