A pandemic and making of an Isaac Newton

We’re going through a time that’s similar to a time in England in 1665. Both times have to do with a major disease outbreak. Back in 1665, a bubonic plague in England, also known as the Great Plague of London, spread fear and deaths and now Coronavirus is doing the same. During the plague, England was in lockdown and now we have Coronavirus lockdown.

What Newton has to do with Coronavirus pandemic?

Nothing.  Isaac Newton has nothing to do with this pandemic that we’re dealing with. But people are talking about him for what he’d done during the plague outbreak in 1665 when he was isolation at home. Newton was an undergraduate student at Trinity College, Cambridge when the plague broke out. Just like now, government issued lockdown and stay home orders. Newton’s Trinity College got closed and students were sent home. Newton went home too, to a farmhouse in Woolsthorpe, a town north of London. There he isolated himself to escape the plague and devoted the entire time to study his interests. The famous apple tree was at this farmhouse. 

The Laws of Gravity

Newton used the 1665 pandemic to his research advantage. He locked himself up from outside world at this house above and went through crazy thought process. The famous apple fell to the ground in the orchard next to the house seen in the picture. The light entered through the window, and he needed mathematics to explain all of that. He formulated the theory of gravity and planetary motions, optics (used prism), and calculus while being quarantined at this farmland. These all were done while he was only 23. Geeky Newton! 

The year Newton spent here is known as the Year of Wonders. He used the quietness resulted from the plague and came up with something that’ll forever benefit the humankind.

Will I be an Isaac Newton after the Coronavirus pandemic?

NO. And many reasons for that. Not that I have the the intellect like Newton but putting the efforts to try something doesn’t require that. Like me, many people will just waste the time isolated at home. And then there’ll be those who will use the time at home and do something creative. So far I’ve been frustrated , somewhat depressed about the whole Coronavirus pandemic, and complaining about not being able to go out. The symptoms that I described about myself are of someone at the opposite end of Newton. When everyone stops smart people like Newton start. I stopped.

So who will emerge as Newton of this century when the Coronavirus dust settles?

By the time the Coronavirus ends, I can think of a number of groups of people who will have contributed to humanity as much as Newton did more than three centuries ago. Number one is the medical services providers like doctors, nurses, technicians who are providing life-saving treatment to Coronavirus patients in spite having the risk of their own infections.

The second group of people are the scientists who are working to develop a vaccine. These people are doing something very similar to what Newton did, they’re using their intellectuality to come up with something that doesn’t exist to benefit humanity.

And last on my list but not really the last are my own kind, engineers. We don’t see them at the frontlines of this pandemic but they’re working as hard as anyone else and building emergency hospitals, designing and producing lifesaving medical equipment, and creating accommodations for ever increasing Coronavirus patients.

I really think these people are contributing to humanity as much as Newton did with his laws of gravity, calculus and optics and more.