快猫短视频

HOW did Isaac Newton come up with gravity? At that question, you may call up the familiar mental image of the young scientist being bopped on the head by a plummeting apple.

In real life, of course, it was not so simple. In his new novel, The Sensorium of God, science writer Stuart Clark catalogues the messy international and interpersonal politics flying around at the time of Newton鈥檚 great discovery.

The second in Clark鈥檚 planned trilogy inspired by the history of astrophysics, the novel鈥檚 narrative orbits around Newton and how he came to his famous theory. The central story draws in many tangential threads: his friendship with comet-discoverer Edmond Halley, his disputes with unsung experimental hero Robert Hooke, his fiery relationship with the Royal Society, and religious objections surrounding natural philosophy.

Forced to pick a side in the current controversy over Newton鈥檚 sexuality, Clark portrays the professor鈥檚 relationship with Swiss mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier as one of unconsummated mutual attraction. He also explores Newton鈥檚 dabbling in alchemy, as well as his near-heretical views on the ability of science to decode God鈥檚 universe. The title, The Sensorium of God references the challenge to divine omnipotence by suggesting that God might need to rely on senses the way that we grubby mortals do.

鈥淐lark explores Newton鈥檚 near-heretical views on the ability of science to decode God鈥檚 universe鈥�

This second book does not quite have the cohesion or pace of its predecessor, The Sky鈥檚 Dark Labyrinth, which focused on Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei. But Clark does a sterling job of covering the tricky period when scientists were the superstars of society.