Out of the Shadow of a Giant: How Newton Stood on the Shoulders of Hooke and Halley

ISBN: 0008220611

Author: John Gribbin

"Isaac Newton is heralded as the father of British science and regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time, but would we even remember him without the pioneering work of his contemporaries, Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley? Newton 'borrowed' many of Hooke's best ideas, including the principles which would form the foundation for his universal theory of gravity, which Hooke formulated long before Newton's mythological apple fell from the tree. Similarly, whilst Edmond Halley is remembered for the comet that bears his name, he, like Hooke, had several strings to his bow. Newton himself might have remained an obscure minor figure, had Halley not encouraged him to write the Principia and paid for its publication out of his own pocket. Out of the Shadow of a Giant shows that even without Newton science in Britain would have made a great leap forward during the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century, paving the way for the Royal Society and many more extraordinary developments"--Back cover.