Isaac Newton was born in a stone farmhouse in 1642, fatherless and unwanted by his mother. When he died in London in 1727 he was so renowned he was given a state funeral—an unheard-of honor for a subject whose achievements were in the realm of the intellect. During the years he was an irascible presence at Trinity College, Cambridge, Newton imagined properties of nature and gave them names— mass , gravity , velocity —things our science now takes for granted. Inspired by Aristotle, spurred on by Galileo’s discoveries and the philosophy of Descartes, Newton grasped the intangible and dared to take its measure, a leap of the mind unparalleled in his generation.

James Gleick, the author of Chaos and Genius , and one of the most acclaimed science writers of his generation, brings the reader into Newton’s reclusive life and provides startlingly clear explanations of the concepts that changed forever our perception of bodies, rest, and motion—ideas so basic to the twenty-first century, it can truly be said: We are all Newtonians.

詹姆斯・格雷剋，美國最偉大的科普暢銷書作傢，1954年生於紐約，畢業於哈佛大學。畢業後先到明尼亞博利斯市創辦《Minneapolis》周報，於1977年返迴紐約，在《紐約時報》擔任編輯及采訪記者十年，成為著名的科技專欄作傢。格雷剋目前已齣版數部十分暢銷科普著作，其中《混沌》，《費曼傳》以及《牛頓傳》（以上三本書都由高等教育齣版社引進齣版）等書多次獲得美國國傢非文學類圖書奬提句，英國非文學類最佳暢銷書等奬項，被譯作近30種語言，行銷全球。