Mahout, Naquin
(born 1911), Egyptian novelist, born in Cairo; worked for Egyptian civil service 1934-71; major work 'The Cairo Trilogy' (1956-57), a fascinating overview of Egyptian society from World War I to early 1950s; other novels included 'Children of Gebelawi' (1959), 'The Thief and the Dogs' (1961), and 'Miramar' (1967); first Arabic writer to be awarded the Nobel prize for literature (1988). see also Nobel Prizewinners
NEWTON, Isaac
(1642-1727). The chief figure of the scientific revolution of the 17th century was Sir Isaac Newton. He was a physicist and mathematician who laid the foundations of calculus, extended the understanding of color and light, studied the mechanics of planetary motion, and discovered the law of gravitation. His work established the commonly held scientific view of the world until Albert Einstein undermined it in the early 20th century .Isaac Newton was born on Dec. 25, 1642, in Woolsthorpe, England. His father died before Isaac was born and left the family with little money. Isaac's mother soon remarried and had three more children. She expected Isaac to manage her considerable property after she was widowed a second time. Since he paid little attention to the family farm, Isaac was sent back to grammar school at Grantham to prepare for the university. When he arrived at Trinity College, University of Cambridge in 1661, he learned of the scientific revolution that had been going on in Europe through the work of Galileo, Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and Rene Descartes. Abandoning the university's Aristotelian teachings for studies in natural philosophy, Newton became intrigued with atomists, who proposed that everything in nature is ultimately made of indivisible particles of matter--atoms. At the same time Newton created the basis for his mathematical discoveries. In 1665 Newton returned to Woolsthorpe and continued his study of light, gravity, and mathematics that led him to three of the greatest discoveries in the history of science.
Newton's experiments with light showed that white light passed through a prism broke up into a wide color band, called a spectrum. Passed through another prism, the color band became white light again. Next he passed a single color through a prism. It remained unchanged. From this he concluded that white light is a mixture of pure colors. He also formulated the corpuscular theory of light, which states that light is made up of tiny particles, or corpuscles, traveling in straight lines at great speeds. (See also Color; Light; Optics.)
The general law of gravitation arose from Newton's question: what keeps the moon in its regular path around the Earth? He decided that only the attraction of the Earth and the moon for each other could account for it (see Gravitation; Moon).
In mathematics, Newton used the concepts of time and infinity to calculate the slopes of curves and the areas under curves. His fluxional method--later known as calculus--was developed in 1669 but was not published until 1704 (see Calculus).
Newton continued his scientific research when he was appointed professor of mathematics at Cambridge in 1669. Three years later he invented the reflecting telescope (see Telescope). In 1687 he published his major work, 'Principia' (Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), setting forth the theory of gravitation. He also served a term in Parliament.
In 1696 Newton was appointed warden of the mint. At that time a complete recoinage and standardization of coins was taking place. When the project was completed in 1699, he was made master of the mint. He was elected president of the Royal Society in 1703 and was knighted in 1705. Newton died in London on March 20, 1727, and was the first scientist to be honored with burial in Westminster Abbey.
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