The Illustrated on the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy
Author: Stephen W. Hawking
Amazon info
The structure of this book was very familiar to me, as it is nearly identical to Stephen Hawking's "God Created the Integers" (see December 2005 for the review). This book is smaller in scope, covering only 5 scientists - Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Einstein - and begins with the story of the scientist, followed by some of their original works. As with the book on mathematicians, I greatly enjoyed the summary of the scientist's work, but was not able to make much headway into the original works. This is parly due to my lack of intelligence, partly due to my lack of diligence, and party because the works are not that readable - being based on contexts and constructs that are unfamiliar to current readers.
Sadly, I found this book somewhat disappointing. I was hoping that Hawking (being a physist/astronomer) would have done a better job on this book than on his "math" version. While this book is certainly interesting and insightful, I did not find it to be enlightening or indispensable - and I expected more. But the real lesson is that I should probably avoid books that focus on the original works of scientists as I don't think I will ever understand a fluxion - even if I know that it is a derivative.
Recommended to die-hard Hawking fans.