Thomas Harriot (1560-1621) was a pioneer in both the figurative and literal sense. Navigational adviser and loyal friend to Sir Walter Ralegh, Harriot took part in the first expedition to colonize Virginia. Not only was he responsible for getting Ralegh's ships safely to harbor in the New World, once there he became the first European to acquire a working knowledge of an indigenous language (he also began a lifelong love of tobacco, which may have been his undoing). Harriot's abilities were seemingly unlimited and nearly awe-inspiring. He was the first to use a telescope to map the moon's craters, and, independently of Galileo, discovered and recorded sunspots. He preceded Newton (whose fame eclipsed his) in his discovery of the properties of the prism. He was arguably the best mathematician of his age, and one of the finest experimental scientists of all time. Yet Harriot has traditionally remained a tantalizingly elusive character. He had no close family to pass down records, and few of his letters survive. Most importantly, he never published his scientific discoveries, and half a century after his death he had all but been forgotten. In recent decades, many (self-styled "Harrioteers") have become obsessed with restoring to Harriot his right place, but Robyn Arianrhod's biography is the first actually to do this, and she has done it the only way it can be done: through his science. Using Harriot's re-discovered manuscripts, Arianrhod illuminates the full extent of his achievements in science and physics, expertly guiding us through what makes them original and important, and the story behind them. Because he hadn't yet polished them for publication, Harriot's papers also proffer unique insight into the scientific process itself. Though his thinking depended on a more natural, intuitive approach than those who followed him, Harriot laid the foundations of what in Newton's time would become modern physics. Arianrhod's biography offers the human face of scientific discovery, a lived example of the way in which science actually progresses. Set against the backdrop of the Elizabethan world with all of its dramas and creative tensions-Harriot's years almost exactly overlap those of Shakespeare's-this biography gives proper due to one of history's most remarkable minds.

Imagine you are fluent in a magical language of prophecy, a language so powerful it can accurately describe things you cannot see or even imagine. Einstein's Heroes takes you on a journey of discovery about just such a miraculous language-the language of mathematics-one of humanity's most amazing accomplishments. Blending science, history, and biography, this remarkable book reveals the mysteries of mathematics, focusing on the life and work of three of Albert Einstein's heroes: Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, and especially James Clerk Maxwell, whose work directly inspired the theory of relativity. Robyn Arianrhod bridges the gap between science and literature, portraying mathematics as a language and arguing that a physical theory is a work of imagination involving the elegant and clever use of this language. The heart of the book illuminates how Maxwell, using the language of mathematics in a new and radical way, resolved the seemingly insoluble controversy between Faraday's idea of lines of force and Newton's theory of action-at-a-distance. In so doing, Maxwell not only produced the first complete mathematical description of electromagnetism, but actually predicted the existence of the radio wave, teasing it out of the mathematical language itself. Here then is a fascinating look at mathematics: its colorful characters, its historical intrigues, and above all its role as the uncannily accurate language of nature.

This is the fascinating story of two women who lives were guided by a passion for mathematics and an insatiable curiosity to know and understand the world around them - the beautiful, outrageous Emilie du Chatelet and the charmingly subversive Mary Somerville. Against great odds, Emilie and Mary taught themselves mathematics, and did it so well that they each became a world authority on Newtonian mathematical physics. Seduced by Logic begins with Emilie du Chatelet, an 18th-century French aristocrat, intellectual, and Voltaire's lover, whose true ambition was to be a mathematician. She strove not only to further Newton's ideas in France, but to prove that they had French connections, including to the work of Descartes, whom Newton had read. She translated the great Principia Mathematica into French, in what became the accepted French version of Newton's work, and was instrumental in bringing Newton's revolutionary opus to a Continental audience. A century later, in Scotland, Mary Somerville taught herself mathematics and rose from genteel poverty to become a figure of authority on Newtonian physics. Living in France, she became acquainted with the work of one of Newton's proteges, Pierre Simon Laplace, and translated his six-volume Celestial Mechanics into English. It remained the standard astronomy text for the next century, and was considered the most influential work since Principia. Connected by their love for mathematics, Emilie and Mary bring to life a period of remarkable political and scientific change. Combining biography and history of science, Robyn Arianrhod's book explores the roles both women played in bringing Newton's Principia to a wider audience, and reveals the intimate links between the unfolding Newtonian revolution and the origins of intellectual and political liberty.