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John Gribbin. Out of the Shadow of a Giant: How Newton Stood on the Shoulders of Hooke and Halley
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PREFACE
INTRODUCTION. OUT OF THE SHADOWS
A NOTE ON DATES
CHAPTER ONE. FROM FRESHWATER TO OXFORD
CHAPTER TWO. THE MOST INGENIOUS BOOK THAT EVER I READ IN MY LIFE
CHAPTER THREE. MONUMENTAL ACHIEVEMENTS
CHAPTER FOUR. MEANWHILE …
CHAPTER FIVE. FROM HACKNEY TO THE HIGH SEAS
CHAPTER SIX. OF SPRING AND SECRETARYSHIP
CHAPTER SEVEN. A MISSION OF GRAVITY
Postscript: Newton after the Principia
CHAPTER EIGHT. HALLEY, NEWTON AND THE COMET
CHAPTER NINE. NOT FADE AWAY
CHAPTER TEN. TO COMMAND A KING’S SHIP
CHAPTER ELEVEN. LEGACIES
CODA. HOW TO DO SCIENCE
PICTURE SECTION
FOOTNOTES. Introduction: Out of the Shadows
Chapter One: From Freshwater to Oxford
Chapter Two: The Most Ingenious Book That Ever I Read In My Life
Chapter Three: Monumental Achievements
Chapter Four: Meanwhile …
Chapter Five: From Hackney to the High Seas
Chapter Six: Of Spring and Secretaryship
Chapter Seven: A Mission of Gravity
Chapter Eight: Halley, Newton and the Comet
Chapter Nine: Not Fade Away
Chapter Ten: To Command a King’s Ship
Chapter Eleven: Legacies
Coda: How to do Science
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
About the Publisher
Отрывок из книги
The seed from which the idea for this book grew was planted during a conversation with Lisa Jardine at the Royal Society, following a talk by one of us (JG). We got to speculating about how science in Britain might have developed if Isaac Newton had never lived. Our conclusion, such as it was, was that although Newton had inspired a great advance, and fully justified his status as the scientific giant of his day, there were only slightly lesser men who would have been well able to set British science off on the road it followed after Newton, although the journey down that road might have taken a little longer. Two men, in particular, stand out as thinkers who made major contributions, not just to scientific discovery but also to the development of the scientific method itself, who lived and worked in the shadow of Newton. They have by no means been forgotten, but even many of the people who still know the names of Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley have little knowledge of the remarkable breadth and depth of their work. Hooke is remembered for a rather mundane ‘law’ describing the behaviour of a stretched spring; Halley for the comet that bears his name, but which he did not discover. Their other achievements, however, are so important that between them they arguably add up to the scientific equivalent of another Newton. So rather belatedly (and, alas, too late for Lisa Jardine to see it) we have decided to attempt to bring them out from the shadow of Newton, and present the men and their achievements in all their glory.
Title Page
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On 21 March 1666, when nobody outside Cambridge and few people inside Cambridge had heard of Isaac Newton, Hooke gave a lecture to the Royal about gravity, where he presented some of these ideas. He described several experiments involving his study of gravity, which he stated was ‘one of the most universal active principles in the world’ and set out his ambition to determine:
whether this gravitating or attractive power be inherent in the parts of the earth [and] whether it be magnetical, electrical, or of some other nature distant from either
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