LI: Learning about Scientists
Robert Boyle-Father of Chemistry
Robert Boyle was born at Lismore Castle, Munster on 25 January 1627, the fourteenth child and seventh son of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. Robert Boyle was educated mainly by tutors and himself. He had no formal university education but read widely and made contact with many of the most important natural philosophers of his day, both at home and aboard.
Boyle realized that if anything were to be done about improving science, he would have to start doing something about it himself. While only 18, he helped to found the Philosophical College in London (later to become the Royal Society of London).
He returned home to Ireland at the age of 25 and took up the study of anatomy. Two years later he travelled to Oxford, established a laboratory, and headed a small scientific society there.
In 1661, at the age of 34, Boyle published The Skeptical Chymist. In this book he overturned Aristotle’s conception of the four elements (the belief that everything was composed of earth, air, fire and water) and replaced it with the modern idea of an element—namely that an element is a substance that cannot be separated into simpler components by chemical methods. The Skeptical Chymist is recognized as the foundation-stone of modern chemistry.
www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v12/i1 http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Quotations/Boyle.html
