Sir Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, 1642, the same year Galileo died. His enduring achievements - establishing the laws of motion and of universal gravitation, developing mathematical calculus, and elaborating a theory of light and color - laid the cornerstones for modern physics. Using a combination of prisms, he elucidated many properties of light that overturned current optical theory and advanced our understanding of the nature of color and other phenomena. His experiments also led him to build the first telescope to use silvered mirrors instead of lenses, the Newtonian Reflector. Voltaire said, Newton "anatomise[d] a single ray of light with more dexterity than the ablest artist dissects a human body," showing it to be composed of all the colors of the rainbow. These early experiments, performed while an undergraduate at Cambridge, brought him to the attention of the Royal Society in London—and, eventually, to a career of fame and controversy. While known for his studies of gravitation and motion, published in the dense and imposing Principia, his other masterpiece was based on his experiments on light. This publication, Opticks, drew on his alchemical and laboratory work to advance and stimulate studies of light, magnetism, electricity, chemistry, and other phenomena. These two works ushered in the Newtonian Century, the Enlightenment. In the words of Alexander Pope, "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light."