Nagoya City Science Museum

Purpose of Exhibition

A graft from the apple tree in Isaac Newton’s garden was brought to grow in Japan as well. An offspring of the legendary tree that inspired Newton’s law of gravitation was planted here at the Nagoya City Science Museum.

Additional Knowledge

The story that the young physicist Isaac Newton came up with the theory of gravity when he saw a fruit fall from an apple tree is one of the most famous anecdotes in science. Grafts from the apple tree in Newton’s garden have been distributed and cultivated in science-related institutes around the world.

In commemoration of the three-hundredth year since Newton’s discovery of law of universal gravitation, a graft from the original apple tree in Newton’s garden was presented to Dr. Yuji Shibata, then president of the Japan Academy, by Sir Gordon Sutherland, then director of the National Physical laboratory of the United Kingdom, in 1964. The grafted apple tree, after elimination of a viral infection, was planted in the Koishikawa Botanical Garden, Graduate School of Science, the University of Tokyo, in 1981.

An offspring from the Newton apple tree planted in the Koishikawa Botanical Garden was planted in the Nagoya City Science Museum in 2007. In Japan, there are many grafted Newton apple trees. These days, however, grafts from Newton’s apple tree are sold only to educational or research institutes, such as schools and botanical gardens, after examination. You can see another Newton apple tree in the Togokusan Fruits Park in Nagoya City.

Article by Masao Suzuki, curator