QQC 4

"Among much else, and without telling anyone, Candvish discovered or anticipated the ... (goes on to list several well known laws)."

To be able to accomplish this much work in his lifetime is such a great feat.Due to his ability of obtaining the resources, he worked on the various concepts of nature and physics. I find it surprising that he chose to keep his work so secretive. Who knows what advancements that could have been made if his work had been known. However, this proves to me that with the resources and commitment, any bright mind can formulate and prove theories that could've been discovered sometime in the future. I wonder if today, there is a person just like Candvish, although secretive, is pondering ideas that we have yet to even consider.

QQC 3

"Newton was a decidedly odd figure…Once he inserted a bodkin-a long needle of the sort used for sewing leather- into his eye and rubbed it around 'betwixt my eye and the bone as near to backside of my eye as I could' just to see what would happen…another occasion, he stared at the sun for as long as he could bear, to determine what effect it would have upon his vision"

I was under the impression that he would have at least some common sense. Who shoves a needle in their eye just to see what would happen? I figured to be smart and to revolutionize math and science you would have to work on ways that don't require you to mutilate your own body. Staring into the sun, anyone with eyes can see that it hurts and is not good for your eyes, let alone the consequences that you could have from staring at it all day. While were are on the subject of being insane lets just combine the two acts together and take a red hot piece of iron and jam it into your eye?