Newtonian Mail

Isaac Newton talked with his peers through the mail. He wrote a ton of letters and corresponded with lots of scientists and intellectuals. His letters were often very technical, all about his research and findings. He also used notes to trade ideas and work with other scientists, including Robert Boyle, Christiaan Huygens, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Mail was Newton's Tools for Thought.

In 1672, Newton first laid out his theory of light and color in a letter to the Royal Society. He described how a prism splits white light into its component colors. The letter started a debate, and Robert Hooke was one of the people who pushed back. Newton answered Hooke with a series of letters that refined and clarified the theory. Writing them made him think his ideas through and put them into words, answer each of Hooke's points, and bring new evidence. That back-and-forth is how Newton worked out his ideas on light and color, and it eventually led to his big work on optics, the book Opticks, published in 1704. Full Story

Many of Newton's letters survive and are still available today. You can read how he thought about science and what the scientific community around him looked like, a peek into the intellectual world of the 17th and 18th centuries. They also show how much letters mattered to scientists and academics back then.

Emails can be considered modern-day letters. I enjoy exchanging thought-provoking emails about technology and science with intellectuals worldwide.

If this sounds like you, please shoot me a Newtonian Mail to my email 😉