Isaac Newton Kindle Edition

The subject is so fascinating and combined with a skilled writer like Gleick it is hard not to have a high quality book. Gleick takes a seemingly unconventional approach such that you kind of feel like you are getting a sort of sideways look at Newton rather than a more common head on look. It is very interesting and enjoyable although the one thing I didn't care for was so many direct quotes .

What a pleasure it was to learn so much about a man who we all associate with "being hit on the head by a falling apple", leading to the "invention" of the the calculus. The book was so well researched and documented, that it revealed a very complex man who was most likely never fully understood by anyone.

I recently visited London, and having read the book, it made standing at Newton's tomb in Westminster Abby so much more meaningful. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about this complex and historically significant man.

As a life science instructor, now retired, with a very broad interest in all science I have taught elements of science history as relates to microbiology, anatomy and physiology, and biochemistry. The apparent birth of modern science in the 1600's has always fascinated me. Halley, Hooke, Huygens, Newton, Flamsteed, Boyle, Cassini, Hevelius, Wren, Leeuwenhoek etal. It seems improbable that these great men and others were contemporaries. Now that I have more time I thought to initially explore the more casual literature re this topic. Newton certainly is on my list. This book was an enjoyable and quick read. Given I didn't expect great depth I was satisfied but I definitely now want a lot more. I am a little sorry to have not looked for a more in depth biography as a first read.

Isaac Newton was not your every-day guy. He may have become disillusioned with humanity in his childhood, but then again he may have never been interested in other people. He spent the first forty years of his life (more or less) in constant, solitary study.

It is by now obvious that Newton was a genius of the same caliber as Mozart, da Vinci, Shakespeare, etc. But he was unique in his solitude. He did not want human companionship. He was totally absorbed in the world of mathematical ideas, as well as the world of alchemy and Bible scholarship (where he became a silent heretic, subscribing to the Arian heresy which the Roman Emperor Constantine so disliked).

So he spent decades shut in his room, mostly at Trinity. He revolutionized mathematics, optics, and our understanding of gravity & the solar system. He did it, mostly, all by himself, buying the key books and studying them until they gave up their sometimes cryptic contents (e.g. Descartes' "Geometry.") He discovered and invented a lot of things, including the calculus (!), and kept most of it secret. He hated publishing his work because it would involve him in disputes with morons.

And he utterly changed our understanding of the universe. It has been remarked that the history of math can be divided into two parts: before Newton, and after Newton --- and the second part is by far the greater part.

James Gleick has done a wonderful job of presenting this unique human being to the modern world, and I recommend it very highly.

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.