Isaac Newton's research developed at Cambridge and during periods away from the university in the plague years of the 1660s. Work on series, rates of change, light and motion supplied foundations for later publications. He became Lucasian professor in 1669 and constructed a reflecting telescope that helped bring him to the Royal Society's attention. His prism experiments argued that white light contains different colours rather than acquiring colour through modification by glass. Debate with Robert Hooke and other investigators made the interpretation of experiment and the management of criticism recurring concerns.

With Edmond Halley's encouragement and assistance, Newton published the Principia in 1687. Its laws of motion and universal gravitation provided a mathematical framework connecting terrestrial movement with planetary orbits. The achievement involved demonstrating relationships and explaining observations, not merely proposing attraction. Questions about the physical cause of gravity remained unresolved. He also developed methods now associated with calculus independently of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. The later priority dispute became bitter, and Newton used his institutional influence in ways that compromised the apparent neutrality of the Royal Society's investigation.

Newton's Opticks, published in 1704, presented experimental work and speculative questions about light and matter. His alchemy, theology and chronology also formed important parts of his intellectual world. Much of this writing remained unpublished during his lifetime. He served briefly in Parliament and moved to London in 1696 as warden of the Royal Mint, where the Great Recoinage required intensive administration. Investigating counterfeiters and supervising currency production formed substantial professional work, not just an honorary reward for scientific achievement.

He became master of the Mint in 1699 and remained in office until his death. Elected president of the Royal Society in 1703 and knighted in 1705, he exercised considerable authority over British scientific life. Disputes with the astronomer John Flamsteed over observations illustrate both his reliance on others' data and the tensions surrounding control of it. Revised editions of the Principia extended and refined the original work. He died in 1727 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His mathematical physics transformed later science, while his manuscripts reveal broader and often contentious interests.