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FROM THE EDITOR
Mention “Isaac Newton” at an astronomy gathering or a
star party and you’ll invariably get one response: He was
a genius, but also a little bit nuts. Perhaps the two go hand
in hand, as psychologists, amateur and professional, have said since
the dawn of time. One thing is certain: Isaac Newton was one of the
most inf luential thinkers in world history, and we still owe much
of how we see the world and the universe at large to him.
Born on Christmas Day 1642 (new style calendar: January 4,
1643), Newton was premature, a small child whose mother said he
could have, at birth, fit inside a quart mug. Living with a grand-
mother and disliked grandfather during his youth, Newton com-
piled a list of misbehaviors that included threatening to burn his
family and the house over them.
Nonetheless, he secured entrance into Trinity College,
Cambridge, and supplemented his college teachings with additional
lessons of his own, including Descartes, Galileo, and Kepler. His
ambitious intellect continued, and by 1669, Newton had succeeded
his Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, taking over
the prestigious, named chair.
Despite a lifetime of cranky, unpredictable actions — and avoid-
ing personal relationships with women throughout his life — he
focused on nature and everything he could determine about it. His
1687 book, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (c a l led
Principia for short), still stands by most scientific analyses as the
most important book ever written. It substantiated physics and laid
down the physical laws of the universe, which were only modified
in sophistication by the time of Albert Einstein.
In this issue, Ray Shubinski’s astronomical biography of Newton,
“The oddities of Isaac Newton,” provides plenty more stories and
anecdotes. You can read it beginning on page 28.
Speaking of mad genius, I want to tell you about a new product
Astronomy has launched, one that is grabbing people’s attention
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See you in the universe!Yo u r s t r u l y,
David J. Eicher
EditorAstronomy’s
mad genius
Editor David J. Eicher
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