Newton (1642–1727) was born in Lincolnshire, England, and attended Cambridge University, graduating with a B.A. in 1665. Between 1665 and 1667, working independently while stuck at home when Cambridge was shut down due to the plague, he discovered the binomial theorem, the fundamentals of calculus, the modern principle of how light was composed, and the basics of his theory of gravity. He held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge after 1669 and was a fellow of the Royal Society from 1671 to 1703, after which he served as its president for the rest of his life. Newton’s “system of the world” or his unifying theory of mechanics and his mathematical physics was published in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.)