Isaac Newton, James Gleick

Isaac Newton by James Gleick, Perennial, June 7, 2004 ISBN:0007163185

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'This shimmering portrait brings him to life with novelistic intensity... makes the science crystal clear without robbing it of magic.'- Daily Mail

'What this excellently written book offers is a sense of amazement.' - Guardian

From meagre beginnings, Newton forged himself a a monumentally brilliant academic career at Cambridge, and at home during the plague years. The prism experiments began his long career in physics. Playing with mirrors and lenses led to the reflecting telescope now named after him. Thinking about the heavenly bodies he observed led to universal law of gravitational attraction.

Did his obsession with nature lead to his personal isolation, or the reverse? Gleick explores these matters in some detail. His single mindedness in pursuit of science translated into a similar attitude to public service. As Warden of the Mint, Newton pursued counterfeiters with a "one strike" resoluteness - even accompanying culprits to the gallows.

Newton's unequalled accomplishments render any complaints about his "difficult personality" beside the point, and should be relegated to the level of gossip and generally ignored. Without him, today's world would not exist, and it is by his scientific accomplishments that he should be judged.

This concludes the review of:

• Isaac Newton by James Gleick