Wednesday, September 08, 2010

[jules' pics] Newton's ghost

The ghost of Isaac Newton haunts Cambridge, and Trinity College in particular, where all students unwise enough to enter the chapel will get the opportunity to be made to feel small by his overbearing statue. Meanwhile Cambridge fellows wring their hands and question why Cambridge has never produced another Newton.

Newton

A more interesting question might be, did he actually eat the apple after it had fallen from the tree?

An Apple

This apple was photographed in Clare College Fellows' Garden. These fallen apples were being eaten only by moorhens, but they were far to clever to allow themselves to be photographed in the act.

I wonder if it is all this pressure to be brilliant that has pushed Cambers back to the top of the World Rankings. I suspect it may have more to do with the brilliance of Alison Richards, who has done an amazing job of screwing simply huge amounts of cash out of us all over the last few years. We even met her in Tokyo!


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Posted By jules to jules' pics at 9/08/2010 08:28:00 AM

9 comments:

David B. Benson said...

Why not another?

Because there hasn't been another Robert Hooke to create the central ideas which Newton then developed (without giving the credit due to Hooke, by the way).

Steve Bloom said...

"Professor Richard is widely known for her work and writings on the evolution of complex social systems among primates."

Given that unfair advantage, it probably should be considered unethical for her to fundraise.

How was Newton at fundraising?

David B. Benson said...

Isn't Stephen Hawkings another Issac Newton?

jules said...

Err... you mean the "popular science writer"?

David B. Benson said...

Sir Issac was a popular science writer in his day.

That's how he became Sir Issac, yes?

Steve Bloom said...

Wasn't that for the Royal Mint gig, David?

Also, I just wanted to observe that an apparent benefit of scientific/mathematical brilliance is great calves.

David B. Benson said...

Steve Bloom --- That's from climbing all those apple trees.

James Annan said...

Steve,

I don't think that studying bishops has much to do with fundraising :-)

jules said...

From The Prelude, BOOK THIRD,
RESIDENCE AT CAMBRIDGE, by William Wordsworth
(The Prelude was eventually published posthumously in 1850 by Wordsworth's wife, Mary Wordsworth.)

The Evangelist St. John my patron was:
Three Gothic courts are his, and in the first
Was my abiding-place, a nook obscure;
Right underneath, the College kitchens made
A humming sound, less tuneable than bees,
But hardly less industrious; with shrill notes
Of sharp command and scolding intermixed.
Near me hung Trinity's loquacious clock,
Who never let the quarters, night or day,
Slip by him unproclaimed, and told the hours
Twice over with a male and female voice.
Her pealing organ was my neighbour too;
And from my pillow, looking forth by light
Of moon or favouring stars, I could behold
The antechapel where the statue stood
Of Newton with his prism and silent face,
The marble index of a mind for ever
Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.