But these and other observations informed Newton’s research in optics and his theory of light and culminated in the 1704 publication of another of Newton’s great and influential works, the appropriately titled Optiks. Despite performing this experiment multiple times, Newton suffered only short-term misery, which included several days of seeing really bright spots and hiding in a dark room until he recovered. As any 5-year-old today could tell you, to view the sun with the naked eye is to risk permanent damage, even blindness. When a blunt needle wasn’t handy, Newton's continued ocular abuse included staring at the sun - more specifically, at a mirror positioned to reflect the sun’s light at him while he stood in an otherwise darkened room (so that his pupils would be fully dilated). Still, an ill-timed sneeze could have changed the history of science as we know it. If you’re still reading after that grisly detail, you’ll be relieved to know the exercise produced visions of colored circles, but otherwise appeared to do Newton no lasting harm. Then he moved the bodkin around and used it to exert pressure on the eyeball. So, he inserted a bodkin - a type of large, blunt needle - in between his eyelid and eyeball. As part of his studies on optics as a young man, Newton thought it necessary to see how the shape of the human eye affected perception of color. Like many scientists throughout history, Newton had no qualms about testing ideas on himself. It was his true scientific work that ultimately won him immortality of a different kind. Alas, none of these alchemical efforts panned out for Newton. This substance was deemed essential for changing lead to gold, curing all manner of diseases, and unlocking the secrets of immortality itself. Surviving papers indicate Newton even had a recipe for the philosophers’ stone, the holy grail of alchemy. He also studied and performed extensive experiments in the field of alchemy, a branch of pseudoscience whose practitioners sought to transmute base metals into precious gold or silver, among much else.
Newton’s tireless mind wasn’t content to restrict itself to hard science.
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