What did Isaac Newton do when plague struck Cambridge in 1666?

Upon his return, he told his professor, Isaac Barrow about his work, and Barrow eventually resigned his chair in favor of Newton. Since he was what we'd now call a Unitarian, Newton had to get special royal permission to accept that position. (Cambridge expected its faculty to hold C of E holy orders.). read more

Actually, the university was closed out of fear of the plague. In any case, Newton went home, back to the farm, and in that miraculous year, invented (or discovered, depending on your philosophical bent) calculus and what we now call Newtonian physics. read more