360Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton was an English scientist who explained gravity and the laws of motion. His book Principia, published in 1687, showed that the same force that makes an apple fall keeps the Moon in orbit. He also split white light into colours with a prism, built the first practical reflecting telescope and helped invent calculus.
Newton was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1642 by the old calendar (1643 by the modern one). He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge. While the university was closed by plague in 1665 and 1666, he developed many of his greatest ideas at home.
His Principia set out three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, which ruled physics until Einstein. He later ran the Royal Mint and was President of the Royal Society. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.