Necessary Factual Truth

[syrakusos]

... He then went to London, adopting an official role with the Treasury ... Newton kept hidden his occasional interest in alchemy during his lifetime, in part because the making of gold or silver was a felony ...

Not the Treasury, the Mint. There is a difference. He was first the Warden and then the Master of the Mint.

He put his alchemical knowledge to practical (and overt) use assaying the work of the Mint. Speaking of assays, an examination of his hair revealed no mercury. When he died, he had lost only one tooth. Howevermuch he may have experimented with alchemy -- and the actual processes he carried out -- are the subject of some uncertainty.

[Ellen Stuttle]

... He then went to London, adopting an official role with the Treasury ... Newton kept hidden his occasional interest in alchemy during his lifetime, in part because the making of gold or silver was a felony ...

Not the Treasury, the Mint. There is a difference. He was first the Warden and then the Master of the Mint.

He put his alchemical knowledge to practical (and overt) use assaying the work of the Mint. Speaking of assays, an examination of his hair revealed no mercury. When he died, he had lost only one tooth. Howevermuch he may have experimented with alchemy -- and the actual processes he carried out -- are the subject of some uncertainty.

For the record: I did not write both sentences Michael M. quoted. I wrote the first (correction acknowledged). The second is from a newspaper article which appeared in the Guardian, a link to and an excerpt from which I posted. The article (see the original post - here) was talking about a manuscript of Newton's, believed lost, which had re-emerged. I noted that the article's report didn't agree with my recollection on the PBS special:

"(The statement that he carried out alchemical research 'throughout his career' disagrees with the PBS show, if I'm remembering the latter correctly.)"

Also, although "the actual processes he carried out" (quoting MM) are "the subject of some uncertainty," that he wrote extensively on alchemy is not. Also, I've seen an alchemical text of his which was known by and referred to by other alchemists of the time. Thus the statement in the Guardian article that "Newton kept hidden his occasional interest in alchemy during his lifetime" is misleading in the possible implication that no one else was aware of his alchemical work. Although alchemists generally kept out of sight of the authorities, both secular and religious (the alchemical interpretive scheme was considered blasphemy), they exchanged work in circumspect ways.

Ellen

___

[Mike Hardy]

Can you picture Richard Feynman dignified? When he got his Nobel Prize I bet he had to be put in his formal clothes with a shoehorn. I read somewhere that Feynman did not want to go to Stockholm to get the Prize. Formal affairs tended to bore him.

He was a superb public speaker and I would say he seemed dignified in video

recordings of him that I've seen.

I like playfulness, as some here will attest. But sometimes it seems as if

physicists take the term "theory of everything" literally. -- Mike Hardy

[Mike Hardy]

They (physicists) may leave it to mathematicians, but the mathematicians seldom pick it up. Speaking as a career academic with a PhD in a field of mathematics, I can say that most of my colleagues avoid suits, formal occasions and such at almost any cost. If I wear a suit, it means that someone is getting married, someone died, or a very important occasion (let's see . . . when I was named Fellow of the American Statistical Association is one example. Other than that, VERY SELDOM dressing formally.)

Now, attire is only one symptom of "difnity," but the package deal is there. Academics don't often enjoy formal banquets, etc..

All true. Once upon a time (early January 2002) I was attending a convention

in San Diego---the joint meetings of the American Mathematical Society and a

couple of allied organizations. Kirez Korgan lived in that vicinity at the time, and

one evening we met for dinner. I was dressed differently from usual since I

had been meeting with some prospective employers. He met me at the convention

center. I told him I'd be dressed like a respectable person, so he might not

recognize me. He said "OK, I'll look for a respectable person."

(Last I had any very specific information, Kirez was living in Siberia, but I've

heard he's moved on since then; I don't know the truth. But he's as adventurous

as Roland Pericles (and uses standard spelling conventions for some reason).) -- Mike Hardy