Newton's Apple Tree Bound For Gravity-Free Orbit : NPR

Sir Isaac Newton famously formulated his theory of gravity while watching an apple fall from a tree. Now a bit of that tree is going into zero gravity. The space shuttle launching Friday will carry a sliver of Newton's apple tree. The tree still grows at the physicist's old home in England. A British-born astronaut will release the sliver at the international space station and let it "float around for a bit.