The Clockwork Universe is the story of a band of menwho lived in a world of dirt and disease but pictured auniverse that ran like a perfect machine. A meld ofhistory and science, this book is a group portrait ofsome of the greatest minds who ever lived as theywrestled with nature's most sweeping mys[...]

In the spring of 1848, rumours began to spread that gold had been discovered in a remote spot in the Sacramento Valley. A year later, newspaper headlines declared 'Gold Fever!' as hundreds of thousands of men and women borrowed money, quit their jobs, and allowed themselves - for the first time ever[...]