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Newton's "Principia" stolen

Posted by chrisd on from the dirty-filthy-tasteful-thiefs dept.

Silverleaf writes "O2 have a story on the theft of Isaac Newton's revolutionary "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" from a Russian museum. For the non-physicists among you, Newton first published his famed three laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation in "Principia" in 1687. I'm surprised this theft hasn't attracted more attention in the mainstream media, since "Principia" is generally considered the most important scientific works in history."

6 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. Something Tells Me... by Bobulusman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That that thief will have a hard time finding a buyer. After all, it's hard explain where you got a one of kind book like this.

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    1. Re:Something Tells Me... by Bitsy+Boffin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd imagine something so specific as that would only be stolen to order. Probably a buyer already lined up or employed the bad guys to steal it for them.

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    2. Re:Something Tells Me... by rodgerd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Some shitbag will be ahppy to lock it away in a safe where they can gloat over it, happy in the knowlege they now have it at the expense of everyone else in the world.

      (Not unlike a description of the general process of privatizing the public sphere, really...)

  2. The reason it is not super important by Slashdotess · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Originals in Art, especially those painted or otherwise created non digitally are hard to recreate. The information stored in the way Newton wrote, the shapes of the letters, etc is not THAT important. However, the brush strokes of a Monet or Manet are priceless.

  3. I'm not surprised by frovingslosh · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I'm surprised this theft hasn't attracted more attention in the mainstream media, since "Principia" is generally considered the most important scientific works in history."

    I think it's particularly telling but not at all suprising that this hasn't gotten the attention that a theft of other items such as art would get. The media and liberal arts people who would make a fuss don't understand or care about science, so they would give a lot more attention to the scribblings of a second rate artist than to a scientific work. Scientists value the information, not the paper, and know that can't be taken, and the media gives them little attention anyway unless a giant rock is heading towards Earth. It's a shame to have the artifact vanish, but I'm not at all surprised that more attention is given when a thief breaks in and steals from Madonna.

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  4. Whats really important ... by lightweave · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What about Newton's "Principia? I mean it's not as if nobody knows about it. Everbody who studies physics, and many not studying it, know whats in this book already so why the fuss about an old book?
    If, i.e. Claudia Shiffer panties were stolen, well that would be a tremendous loss and I bet that media would have weeks of reporting over that (at least here in Germany), talks shows would be inviting people who would have something to say about it and radio stations would stop sending for a minute as a tribute to that loss. But Newtons Prinicpia? Gosh! Some people don't seem to have their priorities right in reporting such trivial stuff.
    Considering the mdeia hype when the Big Brother series was running I'm not really suprised at all.