Re: Einstein vs Newton? Where the hell did that come from?
At the time, when England was slowly recovering from civil war, revolution and plague, the death penalty was applied for all kinds of offences. Because people were struggling financially, forgery was a particularly serious offence - accepting forged money and it then being detected meant you might starve. They were interesting times. Halifax, for instance, used to execute beggars. Newton, as a civil servant, was doing a necessary job.
As for alchemy, it's what preceded chemistry. Dalton didn't come up with the atomic theory till the early 1800s and the formula of water was wrong until, IIRC, 1844. In Newton's time there was no known technical reason why lead should not be turned into gold, On the other hand there was a lot of money in coal mining, and the idea that academics should contribute to the useful arts (and leave their universities a nice big donation) was getting under way.
Chemistry is much harder than physics, just as biology turned out to be much harder than chemistry.
I don't think anybody would accuse Newton of being a nice man and his behaviour towards Leibniz was dire, but he has to be seen in the context of his times.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
