From Jay Pasachoff, Williams College
Though most people’s interest in the recently deceased Galapagos tortoise Harriet was because of her supposed association with Darwin, now debunked by Henry Nicholls, my interest was astronomical (15 July, p 21). No human was alive for the 8 June 2004 transit of Venus who had seen the previous transit in 1882, much less the one in 1874. So Harriet was a creature who may well have seen those transits and eventually got to see three.
My wife and I were glad to meet Lonesome George, the subject of Nicholls’s recent book, at last year’s Galapagos solar eclipse.
From Robert Senior, Science Centre, Woolsthorpe Manor
Nicholls lists the story that Newton was inspired by a falling apple as one of science’s myths. Including this particular story in his list is a little unfair. There are several published accounts that record Newton himself describing such an event. The first was by William Stukeley, who recalls sitting with Newton under another apple tree drinking tea and being told the story. John Conduitt records a similar story. So the story came from Newton himself. Of course he could have invented it, but why should he do so?
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The event took place while Newton was at his childhood home of Woolsthorpe Manor during 1666 while Cambridge University was closed by plague. An apple tree there has long been identified as “the tree”. It was blown down in 1820, but the fallen trunk re-rooted itself. It is still flourishing and shedding apples. An analysis by the University of York, UK, of rings from the trunk taken in the 1990s dates the tree as well over 400 years old.
We are fortunate in having such reliable records of this delightful story and, through the re-rooted tree, a tangible link to the mind of our greatest scientist.
Uppingham, Rutland, UK
Williamstown, Massachusetts, US
