Newton’s apple moment among original documents now online

Everyone knows the story of how Isaac Newton came to develop his understanding of gravity, but now a contemporary account of the incident is available to read in its original form.

It’s part of a series of documents published by the Royal Society, a British scientific institution. Unlike most such projects, this involved publishing scans of the original documents in a format which allows the user to navigate them page by page, hence the project name “Turning the Pages”.

The documents include a 1752 manuscript of a biography of Newton by William Strukely. Describing the fateful moment he wrote:

“It was occasion’d by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself. Why should it not go sideways, or upwards? But constantly to the earth’s centre? Assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. There must be a drawing power in matter.”

The collection also includes Henry James‘ notebook containing his drawings of fossils. Rather than the American novelist, this is the man who was among the most eccentric director generals of Ordnance Survey, Britain’s government-backed mapping company.

The highlight of the remaining documents, which include anatomical drawings and a letter from Thomas Paine (on, of all subjects, an iron bridge design) is the “fundamental constitutions of Carolina”. Developed largely by English philosopher John Locke, they called for the region — then under British control — to hold elections by secret ballot with votes extended to a wider range of landowners, measures which were comparatively radical at the time. The documents were never ratified, but the ideas influenced the eventual principles of North and South Caroline when they became states.

(And if you’re wondering, yes, that is where the Lost character got his name: many characters in the show take part or all of their name from noted philosophers, physicists and other historical figures.)

The project follows the Royal Society publishing the text of 60 notable articles from its journal Philosophical Transactions, including the invention of fingerprinting, the first electric battery, and Benjamin Franklin flying a kite in an attempt to harness lightning.


Born of Hope: An Amazing LOTR-Inspired Movie

Born of Hope is a 70-minute independent feature film inspired by the Lord of the Rings and produced by Actors at Work Productions in the UK.

This 70 minute original drama is set in the time before the War of the Ring and tells the story of the Dúnedain, the Rangers of the North, before the return of the King. Inspired by only a couple of paragraphs written by Tolkien in the appendices of the Lord of the Rings we follow Arathorn and Gilraen, the parents of Aragorn, from their first meeting through a turbulent time in their people’s history.

The movie is available in HD, so be sure to select the full screen option on the player below after hitting play.

Thanks to my french pal Korben for the great find!

How Tough Are NES Games?

Canadian gaming blogger Rinry showcases in this video the cruel experiment in which she subjected copies of the original NES game Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt to various forms of abuse, like being doused in alcohol, hit by a car, or dropped from the top of a parking garage. The verdict? NES cartridges are tough cookies to crack, and make those discs you’re putting into your next-gen consoles look like frail, wimpy things.

How many of you still have a NES? Does it still work? Do you think you’ll be able to say the same about your Xbox in 20 years?

Tekken 2010 Movie Trailer

Oh dear god, another year, another big screen adaptation of a fighting video game.

The year is 2039. World Wars have destroyed much of civilization as we know it. The remaining territories are no longer run by governments, but by corporations, the mightiest of which is Tekken. In order to keep the masses down, Tekken sponsors the Iron Fist Tournament in which fighters compete to the death for ultimate glory and receive a lifetime of stardom and wealth.

Now be prepared to cringe… this looks like it’s going to be bad… very, very bad.

[Via Slashfilm]

Geeks Give Back

In the past week, there have been a number of different fundraising efforts for disaster relief in Haiti, showcasing a global outpouring of generosity. One effort in particular caught my eye, however – the Livejournal community ontd_startrek (translation: oh no they didn’t), which managed to raise $15,000 in two days. Okay, so maybe it’s not exactly a serious fansite, boasting the tagline “Space: No Uglies” and featuring posts largely consisting of macros and capslock and fangirl worship of the GQMF team of Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine – but nothing wrong with that!  And there’s 7,300 people (judging from the number of members of the community) who love Star Trek in a big CAPSLOCK way who managed to channel that into doing some good. Of course, they did get some Twitter love from Mr. Quinto himself out of it. Also, apparently they were running a friendly contest with ontd_ai (American Idol), and it looks like the Trek fans creamed them. Live long and prosper, guys.

Doomsday Officially Minutely Less Likely

Doomsday Clock

The world has become a safer place for the first time in nearly 20 years. Or at least that’s the message from the people behind the Doomsday Clock.

The clock is a project run by staff at the University of Chicago’s Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It aims to symbolize changes in world security through the metaphor of midnight being the moment of world destruction. It began in 1947 at 11:53pm and has now been adjusted 19 times. The clock image appears on the front cover of each issue of the bulletin with its current setting.

Most adjustments have been based around the availability of nuclear weapons and the state of relations between the major global powers. The latest the clock has ever reached was 11:58  in 1953 after the US and Soviet Union both tested thermonuclear devices, while the earliest was 11:43 in 1991 when, following the end of the Cold War, the two nations signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Since that time the clock has moved consistently forwards, thanks mainly to more nations developing nuclear weapons and the risk of nuclear material getting into the hands of terrorists. Three years ago, the dangers of climate change were taken into account for the first time.

The staff has now decided to move the clock back one minute to 11:54, stressing that though things were moving in the right direction, the changes were minimal. They said factors influencing the change included better international collaboration on limiting nuclear weapons and wider acceptance of the need to tackle climate change.

(And now a question for GeeksAreSexy readers: does anyone know why the clock was originally set at 11:53pm? My best guess would be that it derives from metaphors about human life’s arrival time if the history of Earth was condensed to 24 hours, but I’ve been unable to confirm this.)