Biography
 www.comp.nus.edu/sg
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On December 25, 1642 a widow gave birth to a premature baby boy that would grow up to become one of the greatest men in science. Isaac Newton had a less than perfect childhood. At the age of three his mother dumped him on his grandmother and went off to make a new life for herself.
He was a small and sickly child and thus could not join the other children in play. So, to occupy his time he became an avid reader as well as built mechanical toys like wooden clocks, sundials, and a flour mill that was powered by a mouse. During all this time he wrote in a journal, keeping track of things he observed.
Newton attended a small school in his home town and then went to a school in Grantham where he excelled to become the top student in the school.
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At the age of nineteen, Newton headed off to Trinity College in Cambridge. He had a normal college experience. In 1664, he graduated and returned home to Woolsthorpe. The colleges in Europe were closed for two years due to the bubonic plague. In these two years Newton accomplished more than most of us will in our lifetime.
During his return to Woolsthorpe, Newton extended the binomial theorem, formulated the law of gravity, and tinkered with the colors that create white light. It is absolutely astounding that he did all of this and created calculus, an idea that exploded into the largest areas in mathematics and most vital tools in physics and astronomy. All of this before the age of twenty-five.
In 1667, the universities reopened and Newton went back to Trinity College where he became a professor of mathematics and lectured on optics, calculus, and physics. His discoveries were published in 1687 in the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. He spent little time in new mathematical and physical discoveries after returning to Cambridge.
Other achievements of his were to serve in Parliament, become President of Royal Society and Warden of Mint. He was even knighted by Queen Anne.
Sir Isaac Newton died at 85 in his sleep. He was buried in West Minister Abbey with full national honors.