overthrew King James’s regime, Newton was rewarded for his
stand by being appointed to Parliament in 1689. Four years later,
in 1693, his career in scientific research came to a crashing halt
when he suffered another nervous breakdown. Within six years
he held a new position as head of the Royal Mint, and he became
a very wealthy man. In 1703 Newton was elected president of the
Royal Society, and in 1704, after Hooke’s death, he published his
work Optiks,which became a significant contribution to the field.
In 1705 he was knighted by Queen Anne for his contributions to
science, the first scientist ever to receive such an honor. In 1711
controversy struck again: An article in the Transactions of the
Royal Society of Londonaccused Leibniz of plagiarizing
Newton’s work, claiming that Newton, not Leibniz, invented
calculus. As president of the society, Newton established an
“impartial committee” to investigate, and given the leadership,
the results were not surprising. Newton anonymously wrote the
society’s official decree in favor of himself, and never gave
Leibniz the chance to support his side of the story. The incident
became an international affair, and was never settled during the
lifetime of either man.Nicomachus of Gerasa (Thrasyllus) (ca. 60–120) Greek
mathematician whose book Introduction to Arithmetic
(Arithmetike Eisagoge),was the first text to focus solely on
arithmetic without geometry. It dealt mainly with number
properties and theory, including EVENand ODD NUMBERs,
PRIME NUMBERs, PERFECT NUMBERs, FRACTIONs, ABUNDANT
NUMBERs, DEFICIENT NUMBERs, and RATIOs. Translated into
Latin in the year 175, it became the standard arithmetic
textbook for the next 1,000 years, despite the fact that it
contained errors, had no PROOFs, and merely stated its theorems
with the addition of a few examples. Two other books include
his two-volume The Theology of Numbers (Theologoumena
Arithmetikes),which cov ered the “mystic properties” of
numbers, and the Manual of Harmonics,devoted to proving
musical theory through the use of mathematical THEOREMS.Nightingale, Florence (1820–1910) A British reformist known for
her pioneering work in hospital sanitation and nursing,
Nightingale developed a system of statistical analysis that
revolutionized the medical world. Nightingale began herBIOGRAPHIES Nicomachus of Gerasa – Nightingale
BIOGRAPHIES Nicomachus of Gerasa – Nightingale