The Metaphysical Society

Isaac Newton

Publisher: Harper Collins US
Author: James Gleick
Narrator: Allan Corduner
Length: 5 hours 30 minutes (Unabridged)
Physical Price: $29.95
Download Price: $16.99
Format: Encoded Windows Media
Only Available in the US and Canada
© 2006 Harper Collins US

James Gleick has long been fascinated by the making of science -- how ideas order visible appearances, how equations can give meaning to molecular and stellar phenomena, how theories can transform what we see. In Chaos, he chronicled the emergence of a new way of looking at dynamic systems; in Genius, he portrayed the wondrous dimensions of Richard Feymnan's mind. Now, in Isaac Newton, he gives us the story of the scientist who, above all others, embodied humanity's quest to unveil the hidden forces that constitute the physical world.

In this original, sweeping, and intimate biography, Gleick moves between a comprehensive historical portrait and a dramatic focus on Newton's significant letters and unpublished notebooks to illuminate the real importance of his work in physics, in optics, and in calculus. He makes us see the old intuitive, alchemical universe out of which Newton's mathematics first arose and shows us how Newton's ideas have altered all forms of understanding from history to philosophy. And he gives us a moving account of the conflicting impulses that pulled at this man's heart: his quiet longings, his rage, his secrecy, the extraordinary subtleties of a personality that were mirrored in the invisible forces he first identified as the building blocks of science. More than biography, more than history, more than science, Isaac Newton tells us how, through the mind of one man, we have come to know our place in the cosmos.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
-- Albert Einstein

"Seek and 'ye shall find, knock and the door will be opened, ask and it shall be given unto thee."
--A Biblical Passage

"The true understanding of both the Creator and the creation is considered to be the transcendental or metaphysical knowledge."
-- Bhagavad Gita

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."
-- Isaac Newton