Isaac Newton in popular culture

• William Blake created a colour copper engraving entitled Newton, in 1795.[http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/blake/02newton.html Isaac Newton, Blake, William, Web Gallery of Art] The engraving would serve as the basis for bronze statue Newton, made in 1995 by the sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi.{{cite web|title='Newton', Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, 1988 |url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/paolozzi-newton-t06957|publisher=Tate}}
• French architect Étienne-Louis Boullée designed an unbuilt monumental Cénotaphe à Newton (1784), which he intended as an unadorned 500ft tall sphere encompassed by trees. Points of light would penetrate through the sphere in such a way as to replicate positions of the stars and planets in the night sky.{{cite web |url=https://www.archdaily.com/544946/ad-classics-cenotaph-for-newton-etienne-louis-boullee |title=AD Classics: Cenotaph for Newton / Etienne-Louis Boullée |website=ArchDaily |date=September 10, 2014 }}

File:StatueOfIsaacNewton.jpg]]

English poet Alexander Pope was moved by Newton's accomplishments to write the famous epitaph:{{Cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/297/154.html|title=Epitaph on Sir Isaac Newton. Alexander Pope (1688-1744). March 21. James and Mary Ford, eds. 1902. Every Day in the Year: A Poetical Epitome of the World's History}}

Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;

God said "Let Newton be" and all was light.

English poet J. C. Squire satirised this:{{Cite web|url=http://izquotes.com/quote/268818|title = Iz Quotes - Famous Quotes, Proverbs, & Sayings}}

It could not last; the Devil shouting "Ho!
Let Einstein be!" restored the status quo.

The following passage is from William Wordsworth's The Prelude, in which he describes a marble statue of Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge:

{{cite book

|author=J. Robert Barth

|year=2003

|title=Romanticism and Transcendence: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Religious Imagination

|url=https://archive.org/details/romanticismtrans00bart

|url-access=registration

|page=[https://archive.org/details/romanticismtrans00bart/page/19 19]

|publisher=University of Missouri Press

|isbn= 978-0-8262-1453-9

}}

And from my pillow, looking forth by light

Of moon or favouring stars, I could behold

The antechapel where the statue stood

Of Newton with his prism and silent face,

The marble index of a mind for ever

Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.

• Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion, William Blake

{{cite web

|url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/gregory/109/handouts/h15_rr.doc

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040512084704/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/gregory/109/handouts/h15_rr.doc

|archive-date=12 May 2004

|title=HPSC 109. Lecture 15. The Romantic Reaction 1: Romanticism and the Revolt Against Newtonianism

|access-date=2 February 2010

}}

• A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, James Thomson

{{cite web

|author=James Thomson

|url=http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-poem-sacred-to-the-memory-of-sir-isaac-newton/

|title=A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton

|date=3 January 2003

|publisher=PoemHunter.com

|access-date=2 February 2010

}}

• The Movement of Bodies, Sheenagh Pugh

{{cite news

|author=Carol Rumens

|date=26 January 2009

|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/jan/26/pugh-the-movement-of-bodies

|title=Poem of the week: The Movement of Bodies

|work=The Guardian

|access-date=2 February 2010

|location=London

}}

• {{cite book

|author=Maureen McNeil

|year=2007

|chapter=Newton as a national hero

|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yUTq8e7-CKYC&q=%22Isaac+Newton+in+popular+culture%22&pg=PA35

|title=Feminist Cultural Studies of Science and Technology

|pages=27–43

|publisher=Routledge

|isbn=978-0-415-44537-5

}}

• {{cite book

|author=A. Bowdoin Van Ripper

|year=2002

|title=Science in Popular Culture

|publisher=Greenwood Press

|isbn=978-0-313-31822-1

}}

• {{cite book

|author=Mordechai Feingold

|year=2004

|title=The Newtonian Moment: Isaac Newton and the Making of Modern Culture

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|isbn=978-0-19-517734-3

}}

• Newton and his alchemical experiments play a central role in the 2012 young adult novels The Prince of Soul and The Lighthouse by Fredrik Brounéus.
• Isaac Newton plays a significant role in The Age of Unreason, a series of four alternate history novels written by American science fiction and fantasy author Gregory Keyes.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}
• Newton is an important character in The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. A major theme of these novels is the emergence of modern science, with Newton's work in the Principia being prominent. Newton's interest in alchemy and the dispute over the discovery of calculus are prominent plot points, and there is a (fictional) debate on metaphysics between Newton and Gottfried Leibniz moderated by Caroline of Ansbach. The development of an economy based on money and credit is also a major theme, with Newton's time with the Royal Mint and intrigues against counterfeit leading to a Trial of the Pyx.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}
• Newton is a recurring character in Gotlib's Rubrique-à-Brac series of comics, where he repeatedly discovers gravity or randomly bizarre laws after being (often very heavily) hit on the head by various objects, including the famous apple.
• Newton is the protagonist of the 2002 Philip Kerr novel Dark Matter, set during the Great Recoinage.
• Newton is a major character in Michael White's 2006 novel Equinox.
• 'Sir Isaac Newton' is a newt in The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter.
• The 2017 novel A Dragon's Guide to Making Your Human Smarter by Laurence Yep features Newton as a character, having lived to the present day due to finding the Philosopher's Stone. He is a teacher at the Spriggs Academy for ordinary humans and magical beings, and continues to create innovations such as a wormhole generator. Newton also displays a wry sense of humor, using his invention to prank Charles II, supposedly on the grounds of refusing to knight him.
• Newton is a significant historical character in Marvel's 616 universe, first as an inductee and subsequent member of the Brotherhood of the Shield,{{cite book |last1=Hickman (writer) |first1=Jonathan |last2=Weaver (illustrator)|first2=Dustin |title=S. H. I. E. L. D.: Architects of Forever |date=2011-05-14 |publisher=Marvel |isbn=978-0785148944 |edition=Hardcover}} then as the sorcerer supreme{{cite book |last1=Thompson (writer) |first1=Robbie |last2=Rodriguez (illustrator) |first2=Javier |title=Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme Vol. 1: Out of Time |date=2017-06-06 |publisher=Marvel |isbn=978-1302905903 |edition=Paperback}} of his era. He is shown to be super-intelligent and inventive and often plays a villainous role.

• Newton's alleged participation in the Priory of Sion; Newton's grave in Westminster Abbey provides the crucial clue in the mystery thriller The Da Vinci Code.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}
• Newton is credited as having invented the pet door (cat flap) as a monumental life achievement in Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987).{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}
• "Ghostwalk" is a story mainly about the mystery between Newton and Ezekiel Foxcroft's crime.
• In Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series of novels, Newton formalised the system and practice of magic in the United Kingdom in a process referred to as "The Newtonian Synthesis". Newton was also a founder of The Folly, the United Kingdom's state magical institution.

• Arcadia, Tom Stoppard, includes long discussions of topics of mathematical interest including: Fermat's Last Theorem and Newtonian determinism[http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT/search.php?go=yes&medium=pl&orderby=title Plays, MathFiction]
• Five Fugues For Isaac Newton, Rae Davis
• Calculus, Carl Djerassi
• Small Infinities, Alan Brody, MIT
• Character in the play In Good King Charles's Glorious Days - by George Bernard Shaw
• The Physicists, a satiric drama by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
• Let Newton Be!, a verbatim play constructed from the published and unpublished words of Newton and his immediate contemporaries by Craig Baxter

• In 1982, Dan Kern played Newton in an episode of Voyagers!, "Cleo and the Babe".{{Citation|title="Voyagers!" Cleo and the Babe (TV Episode 1982) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0742358/fullcredits|access-date=2022-02-11}}
• From 1983 until 1998, Newton's Apple ran on PBS and was based around answering science questions for children.{{Citation|title=Newton's Apple|date=1983-10-15|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131678/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1|type=Talk-Show|publisher=KTCA Minneapolis|access-date=2022-02-11}}
• Trevor Howard guest-starred as Newton in the 1986 mini-series Peter the Great.{{Citation|title=Peter the Great|date=1986-02-02|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090502/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_8|type=Biography, Drama, History|publisher=NBC Productions|access-date=2022-02-11}}
• In 1993, John Neville played Newton in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Descent".{{Citation|last=Singer|first=Alexander|title=Descent|date=1993-06-21|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708700/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_63|series=Star Trek: The Next Generation|access-date=2022-02-11}}
• In 1996, Newton was the main villain of the anime The Vision of Escaflowne as Emperor Dornkirk.{{cite web |url=http://www.mania.com/anime-expo-friday-report_article_86123.html |title=Anime Expo Friday Report |publisher=AnimeOnDVD.com |first=Andrew |last=Tei |date=5 July 2002 |access-date=23 July 2008 |quote="Q) Where did the idea to use Isaac Newton as a model for Dornkirk (leader of Zaibach) come from? A) Kawamori answers by saying that Newton was an alchemist and wrote a book on alchemy. Kawamori came up with the theory that Newton discovered the "power" [of Atlantis]. He designed Dornkirk as not a bad guy." |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080727032541/http://www.mania.com/anime-expo-friday-report_article_86123.html |archive-date=27 July 2008 |df=dmy-all }}
• In 1996 and 1997, Newton was played by Peter Dennis in the Star Trek: Voyager episodes "Death Wish" and "Darkling".{{Citation|last=Conway|first=James L.|title=Death Wish|date=1996-02-19|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708875/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1|series=Star Trek: Voyager|access-date=2022-02-11}}{{Citation|last=Singer|first=Alexander|title=Darkling|date=1997-02-19|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708979/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1|series=Star Trek: Voyager|access-date=2022-02-11}}
• In 2007, David Warner portrayed Newton in the Doctor Who audio drama Circular Time.{{Cite web|title=091. Doctor Who: Circular Time - Doctor Who - The Monthly Adventures - Big Finish|url=https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-circular-time-257|access-date=2022-02-11|website=www.bigfinish.com}} The Fourth Doctor had previously mentioned his acquaintance with Newton in the TV serials Shada and "The Five Doctors" (the same footage reused).
• In the Japanese television show, Kamen Rider Ghost, the ghost of Isaac Newton helps the main character Takeru Tenkuji/Kamen Rider Ghost to access his gravity-controlling Newton Damashii form. Newton's ghost also helps him on his journey to unite the 15 Heroic souls.
• In 2023, the character of Newton returned in the Doctor Who 2023 special, Wild Blue Yonder, played by Nathaniel Curtis.

• Harpo Marx played Newton in a comic appearance in the film The Story of Mankind.
• Me & Isaac Newton, (1999) is a documentary, by Michael Apted, about seven scientists.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218433/ Me & Isaac Newton, imdb.com ]{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080511155628/http://www.monstersatplay.com/review/dvd/m/meand.php Me & Isaac Newton, Monsters at Play]}}
• "Weird Al" Yankovic portrayed Newton in a third-season episode of the web series Epic Rap Battles of History.
• Newton appears in the web series Super Science Friends where he is the hero of a teenage Albert Einstein.

• In Mario's Time Machine, Isaac Newton appears in the game. Bowser steals the apple from the tree, and Mario returns it so it may fall and Newton can make his discoveries.
• Empire: Total War features Newton, to Britain in the Grand Campaign.
• In Bioshock Infinite, in the passive upgrade system, there is a gear called "Newton's Law". He is also referenced to in the DLC BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea by Rosalind Lutece, and later by Andrew Ryan.

{{quote box|quote= 25 December is the birthday of one of the truly great men ever to walk the earth. His achievements might justly be celebrated wherever his truths hold sway. And that means from one end of the universe to the other. Happy Newton Day!|author= – Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and prominent atheist{{cite web |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |title=Happy Newton Day! - December 25th is a date to celebrate not because it is the disputed birthday of the "son of God" but |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/life-and-society/2007/12/birthday-jesus-lady-god |date=13 December 2007 |work=New Statesman |access-date=11 January 2014 }}|width = 40%|align = right|quoted = 1}}

Some atheists, sceptics, and others have referred to 25 December as Newtonmas, a tongue-in-cheek reference to Christmas. Celebrants send cards with "Reason's Greetings!" printed inside, and exchange boxes of apples and science-related items as gifts. The celebration may have had its origin in a meeting of the Newton Association at Christmas 1890 to talk, distribute gifts, and share laughter and good cheer. The name Newtonmas can be attributed to The Skeptics Society, which needed an alternative name for its Christmas party.{{cite news|last=Winston|first=Kimberly|title=On Dec. 25, atheists celebrate a different birthday|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/on-dec-25-atheists-celebrate-a-different-birthday/2011/12/16/gIQADJPyyO_story.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111219162124/http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/on-dec-25-atheists-celebrate-a-different-birthday/2011/12/16/gIQADJPyyO_story.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 December 2011|newspaper=Washington Post|date=16 December 2011|access-date=22 December 2011}} Another name for this holiday is Gravmas (also spelt Gravmass or Grav-mass) which is an abbreviation of "gravitational mass" due to Newton's Theory of Gravitation.{{cite web |url=http://stallman.org/grav-mass.html |first=Richard M. |last=Stallman |title=Celebrate Grav-Mass |access-date=21 December 2013}}

On 25 December 2014, American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted: {{blockquote|On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec. 25, 1642.}} In a subsequent interview, Tyson denied being "anti-Christian", noting that Jesus' true birthdate is unknown.{{cite news |last=Bauder |first=David |title=Neil deGrasse Tyson Says He's Not Anti-Christian |url=http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150108/us--tv_critics_watch-tyson-7dde5e935a.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108160404/http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150108/us--tv_critics_watch-tyson-7dde5e935a.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 January 2015 |date=7 January 2015 |access-date=8 January 2015 }}

Newton's birthday was 25 December under the Old Style Julian Calendar used in Protestant England at the time, but was 4 January under the New Style Gregorian Calendar used simultaneously in Catholic Europe. The period between has been proposed for a holiday season called "10 Days of Newton" to commemorate this.{{cite news| url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/the-ten-days-of-newton/ | work=The New York Times | first=Olivia | last=Judson | title=The 10 Days of Newton | date=23 December 2008}}

• :Category:Cultural depictions of scientists
• List of things named after Isaac Newton

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite journal

|author=Patricia Fara, David Money

|year=2004

|title=Isaac Newton and Augustan Anglo-Latin poetry

|journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A

|volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=549–571

|doi=10.1016/j.shpsa.2004.06.007

|bibcode=2004SHPSA..35..549F

}}

• {{Comic Book DB|type=character|id=20015|title=Isaac Newton}}

{{Isaac Newton}}

{{Portal bar|Speculative fiction}}

Newton, Isaac

Category:Observances about science