Knight in white light

The son of a farmer, Isaac Newton fostered the scientific revolution in Britain and across Europe.

On April 17, 1705, Queen Anne of Great Britain knighted Isaac Newton at Trinity College, while she was visiting Cambridge. Newton thus became the second scientist to be given this rank. The first was Sir Francis Bacon. Isaac Newton was born in the small hamlet of Woolsthorpe in England and was raised by his maternal grandmother. It is said that, in a bid to outdo the school bully, Newton applied himself to his studies and topped the class. Despite many ups and downs, he secured a place at Trinity College, Cambridge. His education was interrupted when the university shut down because of bubonic plague. While there, he studied optics and light refraction. He said that white light was a composite of every colour on the spectrum and that light was made of particles. In 1687, he published a three-volume series called the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia. His copy of the first edition is displayed at the Cambridge University Library. Later, he was elected as a Member of Parliament and appointed Warden of the Royal Mint. His contributions to Maths, Astronomy and Physics are unparalleled. He was inspired by Rene Descartes, Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus. He said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”He died at the age of 87 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.