ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 considered different versions of Newton as a British national scientific
hero which emerged over several centuries. This chapter, in contrast, explores
the making of scientific heroes in the last third of the twentieth century. As
noted in Chapter 3, Newton’s achievements have been marked and celebrated
in a diffuse range of British cultural sites. Thus, in terms of cultural forms the
scope of my analysis was broad, ranging across a variety of sites of Newton’s
figuration: from eighteenth-century poetry to twentieth-century postage stamps.
This chapter is focused on a very specific cultural form – popular science bio-
graphies that appeared in the English-speaking world between 1968 and 1983.
It explores the making of new scientific heroes of the late twentieth century in
and through this distinctive cultural form.
