The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: May 16, 2010

Official News page 7


REAL LIFE NEWS: TREES... IN... SPAAAAACE...

by Hazed

Isaac Newton's apple tree is heading into space. Well, kind of.

A fragment of the apple tree that is said to have inspired his theory of gravity is being flow to the International Space Station on the Atlantis shuttle. Not for any practical reason, not for experiments, not to teach us anything... in fact I can't quite see why, except as a stunt.

It's been arranged by The Royal Society in London, who entrusted the small chunk of tree, along with a picture of Newton, to British born astronaut Piers Sellers. It's all part of the Society's 350th year anniversary celebrations.

The apple tree itself is still growing in the grounds of Woolsthorne Manor in Lincolnshire, England, where in 1665 the sight of an apple falling from the tree prompted the scientist to formulate his theory of gravity. The apple tree is a rare variety called Flower of Kent, but I daresay any old apple variety would have been just as inspirational.

The president of the Royal Society, Martin Rees, said "We are both pleased and proud that such an extraordinary part of scientific history and important element of the Royal Society's archive collection can make this historic trip into space.

"Upon their return the piece of tree and picture of Newton will form part of the History of the Royal Society exhibition that the Society will be holding later this year and will then be held as a permanent exhibit at the Society."

Sellers, the astronaut entrusted with the chunk of wood, said "We're delighted to take this piece of Sir Isaac Newton's apple tree to orbit. While it's up there, it will be experiencing no gravity, so if it had an apple on it, the apple wouldn't fall. I'm pretty sure that Sir Isaac would have loved to see this, assuming he wasn't spacesick, as it would have proved his first law of motion to be correct."

Yep, definitely just a publicity stunt!


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