From Newton to Hawking edited by Kevin Knox and Richard Noakes, Cambridge University Press, £27.50/$45, ISBN 0521663105 Reviewed by Roy Herbert
WHAT a staggering book. It seems almost impossible that it has taken this long to write an account of the work of those who have held what is the most famous professorship in the world: the Lucasian professorship of mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Starting from Isaac Barrow in 1663, the list includes names such as Newton, Babbage, Dirac and Hawking.
Each of the 17 professors is given his section and all of them are written with the layperson in mind. Nevertheless, tackling From Newton to Hawking will be an enterprise of moment. The reward will come from travelling through a magnificent history of mathematics and physics, nothing less than humanity’s constant effort to understand the universe.
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