Newton's apple tree in zero gravity
12 July 2010
A piece of the apple tree used by Sir Isaac Newton to test his theories of gravity has now experienced zero gravity after travelling into space and back.
British astronaut Piers Sellers (pictured above with the fragment) took the fragment, about 10cm long, with him on the space shuttle Atlantis for a 12-day mission to the International Space Station as a tribute to Newton's discovery of gravity in 1666, when he watched an apple fall from the tree in his garden. The tree, a 'Flower of Kent' cooking apple – now rare in cultivation – still stands at Woolsthorpe Manor, Newton's former home in Lincolnshire.
Following its return to gravity-bound earth, the tree section is being displayed at the Royal Society as part of their 350th anniversary exhibition. Advance booking is required.