Newton pretty much invented several fields of science, like Classical Mechanics, Optics, Calculus, and Gravitational Astronomy. He started out as a novice in a

Newton pretty much invented several fields of science, like Classical Mechanics, Optics, Calculus, and Gravitational Astronomy. He started out as a novice in all of them. That Alchemy failed to pan out as a science doesn't make him a crank in my book. You can't know Alchemy is impossible until you try pretty hard.