Isaac Newton
Alchemy – the ultimate fool’s errand
Secretive, expensive and doomed to failure, the business of turning base metal to gold nevertheless occupied scholars for centuries
Are we finally beginning to understand gravity?
Claudia de Rham explores the true nature of this fundamental force as she struggles against received wisdom to get a new theory of ‘massive gravity’ recognised
The only thing that baffled Einstein was his own popularity
On 6 November 1919, at a joint meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Society, held at London’s…
Trials and Trinitarians
John Calvin believed that human nature was a ‘permanent factory of idols’; the mind conceived them, and the hand gave…
Fighting for progress
The 17th century scores highly — especially England’s part in it — in A.C. Grayling’s ‘points system’ of history. If only the study of the past were that simple, says Ruth Scurr
The joy of physics
How a book on relativity and quantum theory became a surprise hit
What the eye don’t see
The best books by good writers — and Philip Ball is a very good writer indeed — are sometimes the…
