Newton’s Law of Universal Gravity (LUG) became the corner-stone of classic physics. The laws simplicity is truly ingenious: to calculate the force with which two point masses are attracted to one another, you only need to know their masses and the distance between them.

In prehistoric times, if a man fell ill with food poisoning, he made himself vulnerable to the threats of his environment. To the body, motion sickness is a familiar symptom and it tries to treat the symptom in an equally familiar way- getting rid of dangerous food. When we rock back and forth in a car, on a carousel or on the deck of a ship, the taste of vomit can rise to our throat this nauseating feeling makes one sick.

If Earth gets warmer, we will get rid of our clothes, become thinner and possibly grow curly black hair. If it gets colder, we will start to look like Neanderthals and perhaps learn to hibernate. If we irrevocably pollute our planet, we will turn into barbarians. If we live in orbit, we might grow shells like turtle.

In the age of the sail, Britain, mistress of the sea, set an unwritten rule; gun decks of battle ship were to be painted red. The decision may have seemed odd at first but English sailors drew on combat experience – red point concealed puddles of blood in action.