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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."

4 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. 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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