From the treasury
Newton through the eyes of an amateur

Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica is widely regarded as one of the most important publications in the history of science. His universal laws of motion and of gravity and his mathematical and empirical approach to physics would dominate scientific thinking for about two centuries. The reception of the first edition of the Principia (1687), especially on the Continent, was of crucial importance for the spread of Newtonianism beyond the British Isles. A new witness to this process is now being brought to light: a copy of the first edition of the Principia, annotated by the Amsterdam merchant, writer and amateur mathematician Adriaen Verwer. A man who deserves to be called the first continental Newtonian – although he did not always agree with the British scientist, and 'misused' him for his own purposes.

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Woman on the moon

It is common knowledge that Neil Armstrong, who died in 2012, was the first man to walk on the moon. In 1969 the whole world could watch, live on TV,  the American jumping and frolicking on the surface of the moon during that memorable mission of the Apollo 11. But nobody seems to know that almost three centuries before a woman had been standing on the moon!

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