05/07/2016
On this day in 1687, Sir Isaac Newton published his magnum opus, the Principia — one of the most important works in the history of science.
It was in the Principia, or the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, that Newton first set out in mathematical terms the principles of force, time and motion, and revolutionized methods of scientific investigation. It is also where he described the concept of gravity and introduced his three laws of motion.
The Principia and Newton’s wider work have shaped the course of how science has developed throughout history. They have laid the foundation for our current scientific insights, from how we understand protein folding in biology to how we manage heat flow and shielding in nuclear reactors. The scientific world we see today would surely look very different without these influential contributions.
