Picture of Isaac Newton Courtesy of Corbis-Bettmann

Isaac Newton was an English scientist and mathematician who lived between 1642-1727. He had one of the most brilliant minds the world has ever known. Legend has it that seeing an apple fall gave Newton the idea that gravity, the force which keeps us bound to the Earth, also controls the motion of planets and stars.

Newton's contributions to science include the universal law of gravitation, the development of a whole new field in mathematics called calculus, and his famous three laws of motion.