Sir Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravity while in quarantine from the Bubonic Plague in 1665.
Following an outbreak of the bubonic plague in England, Cambridge University closed its doors, forcing Newton to return home to Woolsthorpe Manor for isolation. The year 1666, which he spent away from Cambridge at his estate, is termed as Newton’s annus mirabilis, his “wonder year” when he began work on his discoveries in the fields of calculus, motion, optics, and gravitation during his early 20s
Outside his window at Woolsthorpe Manor was ‘the apple tree’ that led to the discovery of gravity while sitting and watching an apple drop from the tree. The mathematical papers he wrote during this time went on to form the early foundations of calculus.
He then experimented with a few prisms in his bedroom, going so far as to punch a hole in his shutters for a small light beam to come through. This led to his theories in optics.
Twenty-five percent of London’s population perished in the Great Plague of 1665 and 1666. Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667, and was made a fellow within six months of his return.
In 2010, a NASA astronaut carried a piece of the ancient apple tree aboard the space shuttle Atlantis for a mission to the International Space Station.
With the current COVID-19 crisis, there’s never a better time to get focused and productive!
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you” – Walt Whitman