The Clockwork Universe

by Dolnick, Edward

• ISBN13: 9780061719523
• ISBN10: 0061719528
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-07
• Publisher: Perennial

Summary

In a world of chaos and disease, one group of driven, idiosyncratic geniuses envisioned a universe that ran like clockwork. They were the Royal Society, the men who made the modern world.

Author Biography

Edward Dolnick is the author of Down the Great Unknown, The Forger's Spell, and the Edgar Award-winning The Rescue Artist. A former chief science writer at the Boston Globe, he lives with his wife near Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Chronology	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
Chaos
London, 1660	p. 3
Satan's Claws	p. 7
The End of the World	p. 13
"When Spotted Death Ran Arm'd Through Every Street"	p. 20
Melancholy Streets	p. 25
Fire	p. 29
God at His Drawing Table	p. 34
The Idea That Unlocked the World	p. 42
Euclid and Unicorns	p. 50
The Boys' Club	p. 58
To the Barricades!	p. 66
Dogs and Rascals	p. 72
A Dose of Poison	p. 76
Of Mites and Men	p. 83
A Play Without an Audience	p. 90
All in Pieces	p. 97
Hope and Monsters
Never Seen Until This Moment	p. 105
Flies as Big as a Lamb	p. 114
From Earthworms to Angels	p. 120
The Parade of the Horribles	p. 126
"Shuddering Before the Beautiful"	p. 129
Patterns Made with Ideas	p. 135
God's Strange Cryptography	p. 140
The Secret Plan	p. 145
Tears of Joy	p. 152
Walrus with a Golden Nose	p. 157
Cracking the Cosmic Safe	p. 162
The View from the Crow's Nest	p. 169
Sputnik in Orbit, 1687	p. 177
Hidden in Plain Sight	p. 182
Two Rocks and a Rope	p. 187
A Fly on the Wall	p. 190
"Euclid Alone Has Looked on Beauty Bare"	p. 194
Here Be Monsters!	p. 200
Barricaded Against the Beast	p. 207
Out of the Whirlpool	p. 212
Into the Light
All Men Are Created Equal	p. 219
The Miracle Years	p. 225
All Mystery Banished	p. 233
Talking Dogs and Unsuspected Powers	p. 237
The World in Close-Up	p. 244
When the Cable Snaps	p. 253
The Best of All Possible Feuds	p. 259
Battles End	p. 266
The Apple and the Moon	p. 271
A Visit to Cambridge	p. 278
Newton Bears Down	p. 281
Trouble with Mr. Hooke	p. 288
The System of the World	p. 293
Only Three People	p. 297
Just Crazy Enough	p. 301
In Search of God	p. 307
Conclusion	p. 314
Acknowledgments	p. 321
Notes	p. 323
Bibliography	p. 353
Illustration Credits	p. 361
Index	p. 363
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