Isaac Newton Stuck a Needle in His Own Eye

Isaac Newton voluntarily stuck a needle in his eye in the name of science. The experiment was designed to test optics and color perception.  He thought that if he slid a long needle behind his eyeball, between the eye and the eye socket, and started poking, his vision would change. And it did! He noticed that he saw different perceptions of color and light as small, colorful dots that appeared when he applied a bit of pressure. 

He also took meticulous notes with his free hand as he performed the experiment, which again, involved sticking a needle behind his own eye.

I took a bodkin gh and put it between my eye & the bone as near to the backside of my eye as I could: and pressing my eye with the end of it (soe as to make the curvature a, bcdef in my eye) there appeared several white dark & colored circles r, s, t, &c. Which circles were plainest when I continued to rub my eye with the point of the bodkin, but if I held my eye & the bodkin still, though I continued to press my eye with it yet the circles would grow faint & often disappear until I renewed them by moving my eye or the bodkin.

He went on to note that there were different colors and types of sensations depending on if he was in a dark room or a well-lit room.  Fortunately for Newton, no lasting damage was done.

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