“Sir Isaac Newton was a towering genius in the history of science, he knew he was a genius, and he didn’t like wasting his time. Born on Dec. 25, 1642, the great English physicist and mathematician rarely socialized or traveled far from home. He didn’t play sports or a musical instrument, gamble at whist or gambol on a horse. He dismissed poetry as “a kind of ingenious nonsense,” and the one time he attended an opera he fled at the third act. Newton was unmarried, had no known romantic liaisons and may well have died, at the age of 85, with his virginity intact. “I never knew him to take any recreation or pastime,” said his assistant, Humphrey Newton, “thinking all hours lost that were not spent on his studies.”
No, it wasn’t easy being Newton. Not only did he hammer out the universal laws of motion and gravitational attraction, formulating equations that are still used today to plot the trajectories of space rovers bound for Mars; and not only did he discover the spectral properties of light and invent calculus. Sir Isaac had a whole other full-time career, a parallel intellectual passion that he kept largely hidden from view but that rivaled and sometimes surpassed in intensity his devotion to celestial mechanics. Newton was a serious alchemist, who spent night upon dawn for three decades of his life slaving over a stygian furnace in search of the power to transmute one chemical element into another.
Newton’s interest in alchemy has long been known in broad outline, but the scope and details of that moonlighting enterprise are only now becoming clear, as science historians gradually analyze and publish Newton’s extensive writings on alchemy — a million-plus words from the Newtonian archives that had previously been largely ignored.”
Read more at The NY Times (Thanks Christopher C)
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It would be very interesting to see what is found in his private works, the man was clearly a genius. maybe he discovered how to turn base metals into Gold
Did he build a working particle accelerator? Or a fission device?
Who knows what he would have achieved if he had today’s technology.
Maybe we will find a steampunk – style fusion generator, with cams and pistons pumping, which clunks and whirs and spits out tiny nuggets of frozen helium (and is operated by leprechauns).
“God damn you machine, I wish to create gold, not these blisteringly frigid ice crystals that sublimate sputtering and steaming on my floor!”
*kicks machine, gets back to work*
It’s interesting to consider that one of the most influencial scientific minds also entertained mystical beliefs, but it’s not entirely uncommon in scientific circles. Francis Crick (one of the fathers of the discovery of DNA) believed in the concept of panspermia – that DNA was engineered and seeded throughout the universe by intelligent aliens. Conversely, Einstein initially refused to believe that the universe was expanding as a result of the Big Bang – something we now take for granted and he later called the “biggest blunder” of his career. Beliefs are funny things and we should be open-minded, but as Carl Sagan once said: “It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.”
one of my favorite people. he was innerested in absolutely everything!
Panspermia is not so unlikely – what about fungal spores on a meteorite? Or frozen bacteria travelling on a comet? Who knows… not impossible.
I don’t know about the intelligent aliens seeding planets though. At least, I hope not – we could be dinner!
“Sir Isaac Newton was a towering genius”
Isaac. What exactly is dark matter and dark force? And will you have to create a “special” theory, to fit them into your personal understanding of reality?
Sorry Rob – should have stated that as ‘directed panspermia’ (i.e. it was a direct result of extraterrestrial influence). Not sure I like the word ‘panspermia’ now, is sounds a little dirty, possibly requiring an umbrella…