author
Isaac Newton
1642–1727
A solitary thinker with a huge reach, he reshaped how people understand motion, gravity, light, and mathematics. His ideas became a foundation for modern science and still shape the way the physical world is described.
5 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, in early 1643 and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, Isaac Newton grew into one of the central figures of the Scientific Revolution. He is best known for the laws of motion and universal gravitation, as well as major work in mathematics and optics.
His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, gave a powerful mathematical account of motion and the force of gravity. Newton also carried out influential experiments with light and color and built an early reflecting telescope. Beyond science, he served as Master of the Mint, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1672, and later became its president.
Newton's reputation has lasted because his work did more than solve a few difficult problems: it offered a new way to understand nature through observation, experiment, and mathematical proof. Even centuries later, he remains one of the most recognizable and important scientific minds in history.