Isaac Newton: The Story of a Great Mathematician Who Changed Our Perception of the Universe (Scientists Who Have Changed the World)

by Michael White (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1991

  $5.86

• Used

  Paperback
  1998

  $4.48

  A new biography of Isaac Newton that reveals the extraordinary influence that the study of alchemy had on the greatest Early Modern scientific discoveries. In this 'ground breaking biography' Michael White destroys the myths of the life of Isaac Newton and reveals a portrait of the scientist as the last sorcerer. According to traditional accounts, Newton was the first modern scientist . As creator of the theory of gravity, calculus, modern theories of light and devisor of the three laws of mechanics, his methods are perceived as the genesis of modern science. Yet the traditional version of his life fails to tell, by some considerable margin, the full story. How for example could Newton's apparent empiricism be married with his interest in alchemy and magic? What had inspired him in his discoveries? How did he reconcile his scientific discoveries with his religious faith? And, most of all, who was this man who, historians tell us, remained a virgin all his life and who seemed to be an argumentative ego maniac on the one hand and a kindly old man on the other? In this revelatory biography, White paints an original picture of Isaac Newton completely at variance with the traditional portrait.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1997

  $4.33

• New

  Paperback
  1999

  $40.65

  Unknown to all but a few, Newton was a practicing alchemist who dabbled with the occult, a tortured, obsessive character who searched for an understanding of the universe by whatever means possible. Sympathetic yet balanced, Michael White's Isaac Newton offers a revelatory picture of Newton as a genius who stood at the point in history where magic ended and science began.