Scientist’s novel shocked nation (9)
I believe the answer is:
newtonian
'scientist's' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'novel shocked nation' is the wordplay.
'novel' becomes 'new' (novel means new or fresh).
'shocked' indicates anagramming the letters (letters are shocked or disrupted).
'nation' with letters rearranged gives 'tonian'.
'new'+'tonian'='NEWTONIAN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for newtonian that I've seen before include "of a famous mathematician" , "Relating to a famous English scientist" , "such a telescope?" , "using non-relativistic laws" .)