1-153-718 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Isaac Newton, English scientist and mathematician, (1666) 1874. Newton (1642-1727) using a prism to separate white light into the colours of the spectrum, watched by his Cambridge University room mate John Wickins. Newton's discoveries were prolific and exerted a huge influence on science and thought. His theories of gravity and his three laws of motion were outlined in his greatest work, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, (1687) and he is credited with discovering differential calculus. His theories regarding optics and the nature of light, set out in Opticks, led to him building the first reflecting telescope. Knighted by Queen Anne in 1705, Newton is buried in Westminster Abbey, London.