Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. Newton made a number of profound advances in a range of disciplines. His laws of gravity and motion formed the basis for the model of the universe until Einstein. He invented the reflecting telescope, which is now used in nearly all large observatories. He studied the spectrum of light, and showed that it was made up of a mixture of colours. He showed that light could be bent by prisms, and devised laws of reflection and refraction. In mathematics, he devised the binomial theorem, and developed differential and integral calculus.