Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and physicist, c 1700.

UNITED KINGDOM - AUGUST 23: Engraving by J Houbraker after a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723). Isaac Newton (1642-1727) graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1665, becoming Lucasian Professor of Mathematics there in 1669. His theories, published in his treatise �The Mathematical Principle of Natural Philosophy� in 1687, exerted a huge influence on science. They included the three laws of motion, the theory of gravitation and the law of cooling. As a mathematican, Newton also discovered the binomial theorem and differential calculus. His work was unique, pointing physics in a new direction and giving mathematical expression to physical phenomena. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)