Newton’s Apple

Most people know the famous story of the apple that fell upon Isaac Newton’s head as he sat below a tree at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire, England, and how it inspired his theory of gravity. This moment is commemorated with a giant dangling apple sculpture in Stockholm’s Tekniska Högskolan metro station, near the KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Those taking the subway from the university will find the station’s walls covered in art that pays tribute to major breakthroughs in science. Along with the apple, there are striking polyhedral sculptures that represent Plato’s elements as well as visual tributes to Copernicus and da Vinci. While some sculptures are prominently placed, the glass apple is slightly hidden, poking through a metal grate in the ceiling. It’s hung from a chain, which makes it swing softly in an almost menacing way.