Revisiting a Young Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton is typically portrayed as a solitary scientist with intense focus who was obsessed with power and deeply egotistical. But a new book by Caltech historians Jed Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold takes a deeper look at Newton's life in the two decades leading up to the 1687 publication of his groundbreaking text, Principia Mathematica, when he was 44. Using newly digitized scans of…
Isaac Newton is often seen as a solitary and egotistical scientist. However, a new book by Caltech historians Jed Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold presents a different image of the young Newton. According to Phys.org, their book examines Newton's life in the two decades leading up to the 1687 publication of his text, Principia Mathematica, when he was 44.
The book uses newly digitized scans of Newton's early writings to create a portrait of him as a curious and social scholar. Phys.org reports that his interests during this time were often fleeting.
Caltech News and Phys.org both confirm that the traditional portrayal of Newton as a solitary scientist with intense focus who was obsessed with power and deeply egotistical contrasts with the image presented in the book.
Brief written by urgent.news from Phys.org, Caltech News — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
