A Maine writer tells the remarkable story of Isaac Newton and the tree that changed science Newton didn’t get conked on the head by an apple—but there’s so much more to his history Author: Rob Caldwell Updated: 3:29 PM EDT May 27, 2021 CUMBERLAND, Maine — Anna Crowley Redding, a Maine author of books for young readers, knows exactly when inspiration struck and gave her the idea for her most recent work. It happened when she learned a remarkable fact about the tree Isaac Newton was sitting under when he saw an apple fall, the apple that got him thinking about gravity and the laws of physics in ways that transformed our understanding of the cosmos. It turns out that nearly four centuries after Newton sat under it, that tree is still alive—and still producing fruit. Now THAT is a story, Redding immediately thought.