Besides Einstein, no single scientist ever transformed the outlook and worldview of his age more profoundly than Isaac Newton. Often hailed as both the first modern scientist and the last of the ancient magicians, Newton reduced nature's chaos to a single set of mathematical laws. This bold intellectual leap gave scientists and thinkers of his era vital new confidence that they could probe and predict nature's secrets. Over three centuries later, Newton's laws still govern the way we analyze and forecast the motions of everything from roller coasters to comets.
But Newton's genius was intertwined with an extreme personality-obsessive, secretive, reclusive, and vindictive to his many enemies. Besides his fundamental breakthroughs in physics, optics, and calculus, Newton poured vast energy into fruitless explorations of alchemy and religion. Like light shining through a prism, "Nova" will show how these intricate facets of Newton's turbulent personality combined together in a single extraordinary life. With lively period recreations of key moments in his career and replications of his experiments in optics and alchemy, "Nova" will explore how Newton became the giant on whose shoulders all later scientists found a place to stand.
