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Sir Isaac Newton, Alchemist
Hugh Pickens writes "Natalie Angier writes in The Hindu that it is now becoming clear that Newton spent thirty years of his life slaving over a furnace in search of the power to transmute one chemical element into another. Angier writes, 'How could the ultimate scientist have been seemingly hornswoggled by a totemic pseudoscience like alchemy, which in its commonest rendering is described as the desire to transform lead into gold?' Now new historical research describes how alchemy yielded a bounty of valuable spinoffs, including new drugs, brighter paints, stronger soaps and better booze. 'Alchemy was synonymous with chemistry,' says Dr. William Newman, 'and chemistry was much bigger than transmutation.' Newman adds that Newton's alchemical investigations helped yield one of his fundamental breakthroughs in physics: his discovery that white light is a mixture of colored rays that can be recombined with a lens. 'I would go so far as to say that alchemy was crucial to Newton's breakthroughs in optics,' says Newman. 'He's not just passing light through a prism — he's resynthesizing it.'"
We're talking about Newton here. Why did you have to go and bring Economists into it?
Ladyboyarium springs to mind, with its unexpected extra Boson.
Task Mangler
Why are most scientists Catholic
What the fuck are you smoking?
What the fuck are you smoking?
Some holy shit!
From the contents of his post, I'd wager DMT.
Eat sleep die
His most famous invention, the Fig Newton may have been a recipe from his girlfriend's mom.
You forgot to mention his earlier work in mechanized farming equipment, which he gave up in order to "suck down mercury fumes". In doing so, he became an ex tractor fan.