Books like Newton and the counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson

Explore the quirky and dramatic stories behind every element on the periodic table, from Gandhi’s iodine debate to Marie Curie’s radium woes and laboratory pranks with gallium.

A biography of Srinivasa Ramanujan that traces his upbringing in India, his extraordinary mathematical achievements, and his collaboration with G. H. Hardy at Cambridge.

A gripping tale of two brilliant chemists who revolutionized agriculture, but at a high cost.

The tale of a seventeenth-century scientist-turned-priest who forever changed our understanding of the Earth and created a new field of science. It was an ancient puzzle: How did the fossils of seashells find their way far inland, sometimes high up into the mountains? Fossils only made sense in a world old enough to form them, and in the seventeenth century, few people could imagine such a thing--the Old Testament laid out Earth's timescale very clearly. A revolution was in the making, however, and it was started by the brilliant and enigmatic Nicholas Steno, who explored beyond the pages of the Bible, looking directly at the clues left in the layers of the Earth. With his groundbreaking answer to the fossil question, Steno would not only confound the religious and scientific thinking of his own time, he would set the stage for the modern science that came after him.--From publisher description.

Robert Hooke—engineer, architect, and pioneering scientist—rebuilds post‑Fire London, writes *Micrographia*, invents the balance‑spring watch, and navigates a tumultuous career and personal life in 17th‑century Britain.

The portrait Bowen paints of this controversial man, Francis Bacon (1561-1626), balances the outward life and actions of Bacon with the seemingly contradictory aspects of his refined philosophical reflections. As Lord Chancellor of England, Bacon was impeached by Parliament for taking bribes in office, convicted, and banished from London and the law courts. In a prayer Bacon composed during the interval following his punishment, he reveals that the dichotomy of his existence was no more deeply felt than by himself, and he readily admits that his obligations to society were not as suited to his nature as the study of philosophy, science, and law. Modern scholars hold Bacon's philosophical works, Novum Organum, Advancement of Learning, and The New Atlantis, as his greatest achievements. Bowen's story reveals a man whose genius it was not to immerse himself in the rigor of scientific experimentation, but to realize what questions science should ask, and thereby reach beyond the status quo and appeal to the wider imagination of his generation. In his writings, Bacon challenged established social and religious orders, raised questions about the mind/body relation and the role of dreams, and foresaw the development of the modern research university. It is Bacon's legacy to have gone beyond his age and, out of pure intuition, anticipate the concerns of future generations.

Patricia Fara’s chart‑reaching work traces Isaac Newton’s rise to the pinnacle of fame alongside the birth of modern science and the culture of genius.

113 p. ; 18 cm