The best Isaac Newton books

In 1859 Charles Darwin's revolutionary The Origin of Species was first published—but the book was just another example of the ferment and change happening in that year. In that year scientists peered through microscopes and discovered the workings of tiny organisms; technology made huge leaps and bounds as machines took on tasks with a speed and consistency never before seen; the concepts of time and distance were themselves challenged as telegraph cables, train lines, and steamships crisscrossed the globe; and everything was illuminated as powerful telescopes looked to the heavens and gas lamps lit the streets. Mr Darwin's incredible shrinking world takes readers back to this amazing and innovative year.

The story of Isaac Newton's decades in London as an ambitious cosmopolitan gentleman, President of London's Royal Society, Master of the Mint, and investor in the slave trade. Isaac Newton is celebrated throughout the world as a great scientific genius who conceived the theory of gravity. But in his early fifties, he abandoned his life as a reclusive university scholar to spend three decades in London, a long period of metropolitan activity that is often overlooked. Enmeshed in Enlightenment politics and social affairs, Newton participated in the linked spheres of early science and imperialist capitalism. Instead of the quiet cloisters and dark libraries of Cambridge's all-male world, he now moved in fashionable London society, which was characterized by patronage relationships, sexual intrigues, and ruthless ambition.

Math on Trial describes ten trials spanning two centuries and several countries, in which mathematical evidence was used – or rather, disastrously misused – as evidence. Among others, you’ll read the stories of Sally Clark, who was accused of murdering her children by a doctor with a bad understanding of probabilities, of nineteenth-century tycoon Hetty Green, whose dispute over her aunt's will became a signal case in the forensic use of mathematics, and of Dutch nurse Lucia de Berk, falsely accused of having murdered her patients with the help of some faulty data collection and erroneous calculations.

Each chapter of the book covers the captivating human story behind one case and describes in detail the mathematical argument that was used, and where it went wrong.

Philip Anderson was arguably the most accomplished and influential physicist of the second half of the twentieth century. His name is not well known to non-scientists because he studied the physics of solids rather than the physics of quarks or quasars. My biography of this Nobel Prize-winner describes his theoretical work using words and diagrams, but only one equation. It also discusses the two things most responsible for his stature and lasting influence: his paramount role in creating the discipline of condensed matter physics and his lifelong battle with scientific reductionists about what constitutes "fundamentality” in science. A Mind Over Matter will appeal to anyone who has taken a few college physics courses and wonders if there is more to physics than string theory and dark matter.  

Revelation Explained answers the most difficult prophetic questions about the last days of the age we live in. These questions are answered using the basis of the original Old Testament prophecies carried through to the end of the New Testament. You will easily follow their progression as they first develop then continue into their final form. The symbology of Revelation will be easier to interpret once you see the layers unfold.

This book will demystify Christ's final prophecies. You will learn about the meaning of the 7 trumpets and God's judgment upon the earth, along with many important characters such as the Beast, the False Prophet, and the Antichrist. After reading this book you will be able to recognize these symbols through their concealment.

Where does science fiction end and science begin? It’s long and arduous, fraught with pitfalls, false starts, and disappointment. The trek begins with an idea then a thought experiment, e.g. Schrödinger’s famous ‘cat-in-a-box’ and Einstein’s ‘riding on a light beam’. But these thought-experiments are far from proof. They’re still in the fiction range. It's still a hypothesis.

Experimentation to test the hypothesis comes next. If experiments prove true, we have a theory. But that’s a long way from a principle. Sometimes we can skip steps and move on to using the idea without really understanding it. Let’s journey this road together and see where Alex and Lauren travel, using science as they know it and making some up as they go along. They may have to bend science to their will. 

A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time is a short introduction to the history, philosophy, and science of the study of time-from the pre-Socratic philosophers through Einstein and beyond.

A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time covers subjects such as time and change, the experience of time, physical and metaphysical approaches to the nature of time, the direction of time, time travel, time and freedom of the will, and scientific and philosophical approaches to eternity and the beginning of time. I use illustrations and keep technical language to a minimum in bringing the resources of over 2500 years of philosophy and science to bear on some of humanity's most fundamental and enduring questions.

The Invention of Yesterday is a birds’-eye view of world history from the perspective of the emerging global “we”. It follows our journey from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age, from the tens of thousands of tiny bands of relatives we were 50,000 years ago, to the single intertangled spaghetti of human lives that we are today, all of us shouting at once. What were the stages of this drama; what were its pivotal moments, what drove the story, how did one thing connect to another, where might this all be going, and now that we are so interconnected, how come we’re still fighting? 

Writing Unknown Quantity was something of a challenge to myself, by myself. At the very end of the book I note that while math today at the highest levels is remarkably unified, there are still distinct styles of mathematical thinking. It was always the algebraic style that gave me the most trouble. Hoping to correct this, I took a deep dive into the history of algebra.

I am not sure that the effort made me a better algebraist; but I do think that coming to algebra from sort of the outside – I mean, from inside math and as a lifelong lover of math, but from outside the most purely algebraic style of thinking – I am well-equipped to see the history of the subject in true perspective.

Facts change all the time. Smoking has gone from doctor-recommended to deadly. We used to think the Earth was the center of the universe and that the brontosaurus was a real dinosaur. In short, what we know about the world is constantly changing.

I show how knowledge in most fields evolves systematically and predictably, and how this evolution unfolds in a fascinating way that can have a powerful impact on our lives. I explore a wide variety of fields, including those that change quickly, over the course of a few years, or over the span of centuries.