The Clockwork Universe Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World EDWARD DOLNICK
For Lynn
The universe is but a watch on a larger scale. —BERNARD DEF ONTENELLE, 1686
Contents Cover Title Page Epigraph Chronology Preface Part One: Chaos Chapter One - London, 1660 Chapter Two - Satan’s Claws Chapter Three - The End of the World Chapter Four - “When Spotted Death Ran Arm’d Through Every Street” Chapter Five - Melancholy Streets Chapter Six - Fire Chapter Seven - God at His Drawing Table Chapter Eight - The Idea That Unlocked the World Chapter Nine - Euclid and Unicorns Chapter Ten - The Boys’ Club Chapter Eleven - To the Barricades! Chapter Twelve - Dogs and Rascals Chapter Thirteen - A Dose of Poison Chapter Fourteen - Of Mites and Men Chapter Fifteen - A Play Without an Audience Chapter Sixteen - All in Pieces Part Two: Hope and Monsters Chapter Seventeen - Never Seen Until This Moment Chapter Eighteen - Flies as Big as a Lamb Chapter Nineteen - From Earthworms to Angels Chapter Twenty - The Parade of the Horribles
Chapter Twenty-One - “Shuddering Before the Beautiful” Chapter Twenty-Two - Patterns Made with Ideas Chapter Twenty-Three - God’s Strange Cryptography Chapter Twenty-Four - The Secret Plan Chapter Twenty-Five - Tears of Joy Chapter Twenty-Six - Walrus with a Golden Nose Chapter Twenty-Seven - Cracking the Cosmic Safe Chapter Twenty-Eight - The View from the Crow’s Nest Chapter Twenty-Nine - Sputnik in Orbit, 1687 Chapter Thirty - Hidden in Plain Sight Chapter Thirty-One - Two Rocks and a Rope Chapter Thirty-Two - A Fly on the Wall Chapter Thirty-Three - “Euclid Alone Has Looked on Beauty Bare” Chapter Thirty-Four - Here Be Monsters! Photographic Insert Chapter Thirty-Five - Barricaded Against the Beast Chapter Thirty-Six - Out of the Whirlpool Part Three: Into the Light Chapter Thirty-Seven - All Men Are Created Equal Chapter Thirty-Eight - The Miracle Years Chapter Thirty-Nine - All Mystery Banished Chapter Forty - Talking Dogs and Unsuspected Powers Chapter Forty-One - The World in Close-Up Chapter Forty-Two - When the Cable Snaps Chapter Forty-Three - The Best of All Possible Feuds Chapter Forty-Four - Battle’s End Chapter Forty-Five - The Apple and the Moon Chapter Forty-Six - A Visit to Cambridge Chapter Forty-Seven - Newton Bears Down Chapter Forty-Eight - Trouble with Mr. Hooke Chapter Forty-Nine - The System of the World Chapter Fifty - Only Three People Chapter Fifty-One - Just Crazy Enough Chapter Fifty-Two - In Search of God Chapter Fifty-Three - Conclusion
Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Illustration Credits Index Also by Edward Dolnick Copyright About the Publisher
Chronology 1543 Copernicus publishesOn the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres , which says that the planets circle the sun rather than the Earth 1564 Shakespeare born 1564 Galileo born 1571 Kepler born 1600 Shakespeare writes Hamlet 1609 Kepler publishes his first two laws, about the paths of planets as they orbit the sun 1610 Galileo turns a telescope to the heavens 1616 Shakespeare dies 1618–1648 Thirty Years’ War
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