Newton's "Principia" stolen 439
Silverleaf writes "O2 have a story on the theft of Isaac Newton's revolutionary "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" from a Russian museum. For the non-physicists among you, Newton first published his famed three laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation in "Principia" in 1687. I'm surprised this theft hasn't attracted more attention in the mainstream media, since "Principia" is generally considered the most important scientific works in history."
Something Tells Me... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Something Tells Me... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Something Tells Me... (Score:5, Insightful)
(Not unlike a description of the general process of privatizing the public sphere, really...)
Plural (Score:2, Insightful)
All of them? That must be a pretty important book! And one of these Principia were stolen, or more?
Perhaps you meant 'among the most important scientific works in history'...
The reason it is not super important (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's particularly telling but not at all suprising that this hasn't gotten the attention that a theft of other items such as art would get. The media and liberal arts people who would make a fuss don't understand or care about science, so they would give a lot more attention to the scribblings of a second rate artist than to a scientific work. Scientists value the information, not the paper, and know that can't be taken, and the media gives them little attention anyway unless a giant rock is heading towards Earth. It's a shame to have the artifact vanish, but I'm not at all surprised that more attention is given when a thief breaks in and steals from Madonna.
Whats really important ... (Score:2, Insightful)
If, i.e. Claudia Shiffer panties were stolen, well that would be a tremendous loss and I bet that media would have weeks of reporting over that (at least here in Germany), talks shows would be inviting people who would have something to say about it and radio stations would stop sending for a minute as a tribute to that loss. But Newtons Prinicpia? Gosh! Some people don't seem to have their priorities right in reporting such trivial stuff.
Considering the mdeia hype when the Big Brother series was running I'm not really suprised at all.