The Madness of People

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.

Sir Isaac Newton, maaaaaybe

Isaac Newton wasn’t just a smart dude. His singular intellect frightened people who knew him, and scientists for centuries regarded him as the greatest scientist who ever lived. It probably wasn’t even close for most people.

Newton invented a new form of math to explain the unexplainable in nature, and in case that wasn’t enough, he pretty much invented modern physics with his universal law of gravitation (Newton’s First Law) and his unification of earthly gravity with celestial motion was shockingly profound.

There was nobody better equipped to answer a question about mathematics or physics. If you wondered something about the natural world, Newton probably had your answer.

And yet, the greatest thinker for several hundred years succumbed to the same mania that captivated much of upper-class England during the early 18th century.

That’s right: Newton lost his shirt during the South…