History buffs might remember Robert Boyle as the scientist who gave his name to Boyle’s law
BOYLE was born into a wealthy family at Lismore
Castle, in Ireland, in 1627. That was near the beginning of what
historians call the age of reason
Boyle’s desire to learn the truth was matched by
an equally intense desire to share everything he learned with others. He
became a prolific writer, whose writings had a profound effect on many
of his contemporaries, including the famous scientist Sir Isaac Newton.
In 1660, Boyle became one of the founders of the Royal Society, a
scientific institution that still exists in London, England.
A MAN OF SCIENCE
Boyle has been described as the father of
chemistry. He took a completely different approach from that of the
alchemists of his day. They kept their findings secret or else wrote
them in obscure terms that few people outside their closed circle could
understand. In contrast, Boyle openly published all the details of his
work. Further, instead of simply accepting long-held hypotheses, he
championed the use of controlled experiments to establish the facts.
Boyle’s
experiments supported the idea that matter was composed of what he
called corpuscles, particles of some kind, that combined in different
ways to form different substances.
Boyle’s approach to scientific research is summed up well in his famous book The Sceptical Chymist. There
he recommends that scientists avoid being arrogant or dogmatic and be
willing to admit mistakes. Boyle insisted that those with strong
opinions should carefully distinguish between the things they knew to be true and the things they thought to be true.
Next will be William Whiston