The Calculus Wars

Jason Socrates Bardi’s The Calculus Wars: Newton, Leibniz, and the Greatest Mathematical Clash of All Time describes the “priority dispute” between Britain’s favorite scientist Isaac Newton and German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz over credit for the invention of differential and integral (infinitesimal) calculus. Newton developed his “method of fluxions and fluents” (geometric calculus) in

Reluctant Genius

Everyone knows Alexander Graham Bell as the inventor of the telephone, but Charlotte Gray’s book, “Reluctant Genius” reveals much more about him. Among the greatest American inventors, Bell is contrasted with Thomas Edison for his modesty and his insistence on perfecting his advancements before promoting them prematurely in order to gain a commercial advantage. Indeed,