STM+Week+04

"The Chymistry of Isaac Newton"- Response

Through my readings into the thoughts and theories of Sir Isaac Newton, I have seen that he was a man of immense scientific and logical capability. Although many of his ideas, like those about the generation of metal and the existence of a master element in charge of “the ferment of fire and all vegetables”, can be viewed today as nothing more than gross misunderstandings of the “true” mechanisms of the world they still raise Sir Newton further up in his intellectual standings. If most people then and now were to have the issue of the existence of metals or the formation of different types of salt placed before them without any substantial prior knowledge or experience, they would most likely come up with an explanation no more complex then “It just happens”, “It is god’s will”, or “Huh?”. Today, we can scuff at some of his ideas because we have used advanced technology and hundreds of more years of intellectual development and accumulation of knowledge. Using only comparatively simple tools and knowledge, Newton was able to develop very complex theories that, without the extra insight that we posses today, could explain the inner workings of a world that had gone generally unanswered for countless generations. If more people today had that kind of theoretical and analytical mind we could make a myriad of new advancements in almost every aspect of our understanding of “Science”. We no longer dig into the mysteries of the world or think up new hypothesis and theories for the workings of the unknown. Even when it comes to simple or everyday happenings, most people know very little about or ignore how things work. Even in our state of immense naivety and ignorance, few people stop for a moment in their lives to think “How did that image get from the studio onto my television?” or “Why does the light bulb turn on when I flip a switch across the room?”. In closing, I think we should all be a little more like Sir Isaac Newton and think about the world around us, even if the ideas we come to are only based on our own logic and limited knowledge.