Silica Garden Illustrating Mineral "Vegetation"
In Newton's day, a silica garden was usually made by placing ferric
chloride lumps in a solution of potassium silicate, as in the following
demonstration.
See: Multimedia Lab
Isaac Newton is known today as one of the most profound scientists to have ever lived. Newton's discoveries in physics, optics, and mathematics
overturned a variety of fundamental beliefs about nature and reshaped
science in ways that are still powerfully with us. But this is only part
of Newton's fascinating story. Research over the last generation has
revealed that the famous scientist spent over thirty years composing,
transcribing, and expounding alchemical texts, resulting in a mass of
papers totaling about a million manuscript words. In fact, Newton seems
to have considered himself one of an elite alchemical brotherhood, even
going so far as to coin private anagrams of his name in the secretive
custom of the sons of art. Despite our growing knowledge of Newton's
deep involvement in alchemy, one basic question remains to be answered
Why did the founder of Newtonian physics believe in alchemy, a
discipline long viewed as discredited in the modern scientific world?
William R. Newman's lecture will attempt to arrive at an answer to that
question by providing the evidence that led seventeenth-century thinkers
to an acceptance of alchemical transmutation. Why did Isaac Newton Believe in Alchemy?
You may be familiar with Isaac Newton from such inventions as calculus
and the law of universal gravitation. What you may not know is that he
was also an avid "chymist," or alchemist. In fact, Newton actually wrote
roughly a million words about alchemy and his experiments with it — as
Indiana University science historian William Newman has noted, Newton probably spent more time doing alchemy than he did on any of his other scientific pursuits. See: Incredible videos recreate Isaac Newton’s experiments with alchemy
No comments:
Post a Comment