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He was the greatest scientist of his day, perhaps of all time. But while
Isaac Newton was busy discovering the universal law of gravitation, he was also
searching out hidden meanings in the Bible and pursuing the covert art of
alchemy. In this program, NOVA explores the strange and complex mind of Isaac
Newton.
Using docudrama scenes starring Scott Handy (Masterpiece Theatre's Henry
VIII) as Newton, this film recreates the unique climate of late 17th-century
England, where a newfound fascination with science and mathematics coexisted
with extreme views on religious doctrine. Newton shared both obsessions.
The program also covers Newton's most important discoveries in mathematics,
physics, and optics. And it follows a detailed recreation of one of Newton's
little-known alchemical experiments, assembled by Bill Newman, Professor of
History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University, who spent years
deciphering Newton's secret coded recipes (see Newton's Alchemy).
Most people know of Newton as the father of modern science, but his tireless
genius knew no bounds. A devout Christian, his meticulous study of the
scriptures led him to conclude that both Catholicism and the Anglican Church of
England were based on dangerous heresies. Prudently, he kept these opinions to
himself.
Oddly enough, he often kept his remarkable scientific discoveries to himself as
well. While a student at Cambridge University in the 1660s, he had to return
home to escape an outbreak of the plague. Working largely from this country
setting, he invented the branch of mathematics we now call calculus and began
asking fundamental questions about the nature of force and motion that would
later lead him to the universal law of gravitation. At the time, he published
nothing on these breakthroughs. (For more on Newton's extraordinary scientific
accomplishments, see His Legacy.)
Returning to full-time studies at Cambridge after the epidemic, he worked his
way up to an appointment as the prestigious Lucasian professor of mathematics,
a position now held by the noted physicist Stephen Hawking. Newton's
mathematics lectures were so notoriously difficult that few, if any, students
attended them. He also continued his optical experiments, which showed that
white light is a mixture of all the colors of the rainbow, rather than being a
pure form of light as was generally believed at that time.
In 1936 a huge cache of Newton's papers turned up that revealed his lifelong
passion for alchemy. Though today alchemy is classed with magic and
pseudoscience, in the 17th century it was a respected form of natural inquiry
that was methodically laying the foundation for modern chemistry.
But the crowning achievement of Newton's career was his Principia
Mathematica, an astonishing book that uses concepts of mass, force, motion,
and gravity to explain everything from falling apples to orbiting planets. The
mammoth work was sparked by a simple question from Newton's friend Edmond
Halley, discoverer of the periodic nature of the comet that bears his name. Halley
merely wanted to know the shape of a planet's orbit around the sun (see Birth
of a Masterpiece).
NOVA also delves into Newton's religious studies, which he pursued with his
characteristic zeal for finding unseen connections. One fixation was dating the
Apocalypse based on clues in the Bible. It was recently announced that,
according to Newton, the date for all the turmoil predicted in the book of
Revelation is in our own century: 2060.
Whether it was in physics, alchemy, or theology, Newton was ceaselessly
"looking for ultimate answers to questions," says Indiana University historian
Gale Christianson.
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Workaholic, recluse, genius: Isaac Newton
was a complicated and brilliant man, whose accomplishments ranged widely and,
some might say, weirdly.
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