Be Like Isaac, Sort Of
There is a well-known quote attributed (mostly correctly) to Sir Isaac Newton:
If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
He did write this in a letter (you can get some background on that here and here ) to his antagonist Robert Hooke, though it is based on a much older quote in Latin
nanos gigantium humeris insidentes
which you can read about on this Wikipedia page to get you started:
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
The famous Newton quote is sort of meta, then, as he based it on a previous work, but Sir Isaac was not always free of controversy and perhaps some questionable claims.
You can read about the most famous (or infamous) case, also on Wikipedia to get you started (follow the links within for more info, as always):
Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy
If you do delve into the life and times of Isaac Newton (before and after his Knighthood), you may come across his time at The Royal Society:
Isaac Newton at The Royal Society
It is said that Newton would from time to time use his position of authority to squash any claims of impropriety. One of the most famous scholars with a few questionable marks on his permanent record…
This Episode
Copy That via Anchor.fm
Hosts: Nancy Hugo, Dan Hugo
Recorded 1 August 2021, Published 2 August 2021
Hugo Floss podcast via Anchor.fm
Episode Art
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
Space!
As we touched on during the episode, Jeff Bezos recently flew to the edge of the upper atmosphere and, on returning from not-quite-space, thanked his employees and customers of Amazon.com for making that possible.
The point being, we often forget what went in to the things around us, from countless people all over the world and through time. Here is a quick and partial rundown for the 20th century:
This is true of most things… new ideas come from old ideas.
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