the work was done by robert hook, ed hand haley, robert boyle and most of all, isaac newton. at the same time, they had competitors. newton was one of the most well known and the hardest to get along with. his feud with look in its -- they both discovered calculus -- lasts decades. newton hated sharing his discoveries, and when he did publish them, he did nothing to make his writing easy to read or to understand. lucky for us, edward dolnick does just the opposite, showing the reader the culture and thought of the period thereby making clear the workings and impact of the new discoveries. at the beginning of this book, the residents of london are afraid the end of the world is just around the corner, especially in 1666. but in the end their world improved. perhaps we can hope the same will happen in our century. welcome, edward dolnick. [applause] >> well, thanks for that, and thanks for coming out on the last day of the world and sharing that with me. that's -- [laughter] a generous thing to do. it turns out, actually, that this business of the world coming to an end is going

almost exactly a century later in 1705, the queen of england bestowed a knighthood on isaac newton. when newton eventually died, dukes and earlies carried his casket, and he was given what amount today a royal funeral. -- amounted to a royal funeral. among the achievements that won him universal fame was this: he had convinced the world of the doctrines that cost brew know his life. -- bruno his life. so sometime between those two events, the burning alive of bruno, and the hailing as a secular saint of isaac newton, somewhere between those two events the world changed. i think it was around 1660 when the modern world was born. so i want to talk about history and science and new ideas. i want to talk about what it was like to look through a microscope or a telescope for the first time when nobody had ever done it, no one knew what you would see. but i don't want to talk about those ideas in the way that you usually hear about them because i think that the conventional way of talking about these ideas gets things wrong in an important way. when people talk about the scientific geniuse

but as isaac newton famously observed, what goes up must also come down. >> this is not an innocent brownie. >> reporter: enter the lazy cake, a so-called relaxation brownie sold in at least two dozen states. >> pot. >> reporter: no marijuana here. the lazy cake contains medical tonen. >> melatonin. >> reporter: too much can have a powerful effect, sending the user into a deep sleep. supplements have been known to prompt thousands of calls to poison control centers, in many cases, involving kids. arkansas has banned lazy cakes and one town in massachusetts is working to do the same. its mayor says even though the package clearly says lazy cakes are for adult use only -- >> it's psychedelic packaging and its cartoon character known as lazy larry indicate other buys. >> reporter: the makers say they encourage store owners to place them with other dietary supplements. >> if you need to relax, take it at night obligations you have, it shouldn't be dangerous. >> reporter: one lazy cake contains double the recommended dose for melatonin. the serving size is half a brownie but could be a lot of tr

up next, edward dolnick on isaac newton and the birth of the modern world. >> good afternoon and welcome to the second annual gaithersburg book festival. my name is kathy, and i'm a city council member. gaithers been -- gaithersburg proudly supports culture, and we are please today bring you this event. a couple of announcements. for the consideration of everyone here, please silence any devices that make any kind of noise. your feedback is critical in helping us to improve this event. surveys are available here at the info desk and online at our web site. everyone who submits a survey will be entered into a random drawing for a nook color, so, please, be sure to fill one out and submit it. we welcome c-span's booktv and their viewers across the country. if there is time during the presentation for audience questions, please make sure you use the microphone right here so everyone here and in the television audience can hear you. edward dolnick will be signing books immediately after this presentation. bas books are on sale in the