A scientific law defined by the Lincolnshire-born genius Sir Isaac Newton is about to be proved – in outer space.

British-born astronaut Dr Piers Sellers will be taking part of Sir Isaac's theory of gravity-inspiring apple tree with him on the final mission of Nasa's space shuttle Atlantis, which lifts off on Friday.

Sir Isaac's eureka moment was observing an apple falling from the tree.

The tree sample, from Sir Isaac's family home of Woolsthorpe Manor, near Grantham, has been lent to Dr Sellers by the Royal Society.

He will be taking it into orbit as part of the academic institution's 350th anniversary celebrations.

It will be accompanied on the trip into space by an image of Sir Isaac, also donated by the Royal Society.

During the space flight Sir Isaac's first law of motion will be proved.

This law states that every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force – inertia.

Dr Sellers said that ironically the piece of tree will be in zero gravity in space.

"While it's up there it will be experiencing no gravity, so if it had an apple on it the apple wouldn't fall," he said.

"I'm pretty sure that Sir Isaac would have loved to see this, assuming he wasn't spacesick, as it would have proved his first law of motion to be correct."

Woolsthorpe Manor administrator Ann Moynihan said: "We love the thought of this piece of the tree floating in zero gravity and we know that Isaac would have been fascinated and amazed by it."