Isaac Newton by James Gleick, Fourth Estate/Pantheon, 拢15/$ 22.95, ISBN 0007163177/0375422331 Reviewed by Graham Farmelo
ISAAC Newton cuts a unique figure in history 鈥� a pre-eminent scientific genius and, to modern sensibilities, a pre-eminent embarrassment. It is not easy for us to understand what led him to write his million words of alchemical hokum, nor is it easy to forgive the sheer nastiness of his treatment of anyone who crossed his path.
This terrific short biography gives us an unsentimental account of Newton鈥檚 life, drawing on James Gleick鈥檚 close studies of original documents and on the abundant work of recent scholars who have refocused our understanding of it. Gleick is not writing primarily for historians. Rather, he is addressing the same huge audience that enjoyed his classic Chaos 鈥� readers who relish a good story expertly told.
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Gleick takes us well beyond the hagiographic recyclings of the 鈥淪tanding on the shoulders of giants鈥� line, which was at least five centuries old when Newton used it and is etched on a window of Chartres cathedral. He is enlightening, too, on the tale of the falling apple 鈥� which Newton coined only a few months before his death and then retold several times, ensuring that it was promulgated many times over.
Many readers will be surprised to hear of the great theorist鈥檚 expertise and achievements as an experimenter. And amazed, perhaps, at how close he came to ideas that crystallised only centuries later: for example, the energy-mass relationship of special relativity E = mc2.
Gleick鈥檚 eye for the telling and colourful story is as sharp as ever. Among the dozens here, many will enjoy reading how Newton suppressed his sex drive and how he condoned capital punishment for currency fraud. Isaac Newton is meticulously researched and referenced, written more densely than we have come to expect from Gleick, but always with his engaging fluency. For my money this is Gleick鈥檚 best book, and without question the finest short life of science鈥檚 most perplexing figure. In both respects, that鈥檚 saying something.