Isaac Newton. Caricature of the English scientist Isaac Newton (1643-1727), shown with a falling apple, representing his theories of gravity. It is said that Newton observed a falling apple and realised that the force that pulled it to Earth was the same as the force that kept the Moon and planets in their orbits. This led him to derive his equation of universal gravitation and his laws of motion, which formed the bedrock of science until the relativity theories of Einstein over 300 years later. As well as this, Newton designed a new type of telescope, studied light and devised calculus and the binomial theorem.