Laws of Science and the Great Minds Behind Them

2008, Oxford, NY, 514 pages

If you have been an avid documentary viewer, then science and science-fiction writer Clifford A. Pickover has probably touched you. The man has written over 40 investigative books. If you are a documentary author or a sci-fi author like myself then Clifford is someone you reach for as a source. I would like to have his entire library but have settled for one. I will not even consider writing any of my harder sci-fi without cracking this book, which I have read cover-to-cover once, and keep on hand as reference book.

This is not just an encyclopedic sourcebook, but an investigation into the evolution of humanity’s collective mind; our way of looking within and without. Clifford begins with discussing natural laws, lawgivers as benchmark historical figures, discovery, and mathematics. He discusses the strands of human thought including religion and lays out the scheme of the book, which ingeniously includes ‘conversation starters’ as a feature of his narrative. The idea, I think, is to bring this thing to a dinner party where MTV and the NFL are not on the itinerary. The conversation starters are extensive quotes from key figures in the recent literature of thought and discovery. Extensive bibliography entrees are listed at the end of the chapters.

Where Pickover shines, in my opinion, is in his discussion of Sir Isaac Newton. We may think of Newton as the first modern scientist, but under Clifford’s microscope we find that Newton was more accurately ‘the last of the magicians’. He goes into various personal anecdotes to prove this, including Newton’s biblical obsessions. One of the best things about his work is Pickover’s research and citing of sources, making him an excellent guide to other author’s works. Below are the number of books in Sir Isaac Newton’s Library by subject, with Pickover citing as his source John Harrison:

1. Theology, 477 books

2. Alchemy, 169 books

3. Mathematics, 126 books

4. Physics, 52 books

5. Astronomy, 33 books

Just here, on page 107 of Archimedes to Hawking, one of our most generally held modern assumptions is turned on its head. As a sci-fi writer I would not want to be caught at my desk without this insightful history of our biggest and deepest ideas.